


EVERYDAY 
P EDAGOGY 

LINCOLN 




Class L ff 

Book ,y-fr 

CopyrigM^?_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

WITH SPECIAL APPLICATION 
TO THE RURAL SCHOOL 



BY 



LILLIAN I. LINCOLN 

SUPERVISOR OF TRAINING IN THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
FARMINGTON, MAINE 



GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO 



COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY LILLIAN I. LINCOLN 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



515-4 



o 



y 



<-: 






\y 






gftc satftengum j>reg< 

GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



MAY -5 1915 
©CI.A398686 



PREFACE 

No claim is made that the ideas here set forth are new. 
The best of them are very old. Some of them are told 
more than once in this book, but those are the ones it has 
been found necessary to tell many times to student teachers. 
The material is in part oversimple, and in part, perhaps, 
overelaborated. It has been made so purposely. In those 
things that might be called faults lies the merit of the 
work, if it has any merit. The plans herein given are 
practical not theoretical, most of them having been tried 
in our own school and gathered through close association 
with many teachers. They are stated in the way which has 
seemed to meet the needs of young teachers in everyday 
work. 

Not all the books and other material, nor all the ideas, 
are supposed to be used by any one person. Enough has 
been suggested to leave freedom for choice. In cases of 
doubt, application has been made to the rural school, 
though most of the suggestions will serve as well for 
any other school. 

Repeated requests for information along these lines and 
a long-continued service in connection with young teachers 
in training classes and institutes have furnished the occa- 
sion for the making of the book. It is hoped that the 
volume may be of practical value. 

[iii] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

The writer wishes to take this opportunity to express 
her indebtedness and gratitude to Payson Smith, LL.D., 
Litt.D., Superintendent of the Public Schools of Maine. 
His kindly assistance and encouragement have been un- 
failing. His corrections, suggestions, and additions, made 
in connection with the reading of the manuscript, have 
added much to its practical value. 

LILLIAN I. LINCOLN 

State Normal School, 
Farmington, Maine 



[iv] 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. THE TEACHER i 

II. THE TEACHER'S EQUIPMENT 7 

III. THE SCHOOL BUILDING AND GROUNDS. . . 15 

IV. APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 25 
V. STARTING IN 44 

VI. GOING ON 57 

VII. THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD. . 67 

VIII. MORNING EXERCISES 88 

IX. ARITHMETIC 95 

X. READING 112 

XL DICTIONARY STUDY 128 

XII. SPELLING 132 

XIII. LANGUAGE 142 

XIV. THE PICTURE 152 

XV. THE POEM 155 

XVI. THE STORY 166 

XVII. GEOGRAPHY . . 178 

XVIII. HISTORY 191 

XIX. NATURE STUDY 199 

XX. DRAWING 215 

XXI. WRITING 222 

XXII. MUSIC 228 

XXIII. DESK WORK 234 

[V] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXIV. INDUSTRIAL WORK 244 

XXV. SPECIAL EXERCISES 259 

XXVI. THE RECITATION 264 

XXVII. PLAY 277 

XXVIII. DISCIPLINE 282 

XXIX. CONCLUSION 299 

INDEX 303 



[Vi] 



INTRODUCTION 

It is trite to say that the success of a school system is 
to be measured in terms of the efficiency of the teaching 
force. 

Yet, in a day when the emphasis on system and machin- 
ery is great, it is worth while to reiterate that plans, policies, 
and theories for the improvement of education are effective 
only in the degree that they find expression in the life of 
the individual school and that this expression must come 
by means of the individual teacher. 

To make the teacher more efficient is to make the school 
better, hence improvement of the teacher remains the im- 
portant function of the educational machinery we establish. 

Much stress is laid, in the work of teacher improvement, 
on the need of the widest possible knowledge on the part 
of the teacher of the principles underlying successful in- 
struction and school management. Happily there is no 
longer any serious discussion of the desirability of this 
knowledge. One may as well admit, however, that general 
information in regard to the theories of education is not 
of itself a guaranty of effective teaching. Unless these 
theories find concrete expression in daily practice, the 
knowledge of them is quite without value. 

It happens not infrequently that teachers — and espe- 
cially beginning teachers — find themselves embarrassed in 

[vii] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

a wealth of theory. How to summon to their aid in a crisis 
of the day's work just the principle the occasion requires 
constitutes an educational problem by itself. 

Admitting, then, the very important place of the school- 
room teacher in making the school system effective, and 
emphasizing the necessity of a sound basis in educational 
theory for schoolroom procedure, we find there must be a 
large place for those who — whether by book, lecture, or ser- 
mon — shall aid teachers to interpret their theories into sane 
educational practices. Progress in the making of better 
schools will be less halting and hesitating, will be less dis- 
turbed by unnecessary repetitions of experiments and by 
much traveling of bypaths with profitless ends, as teachers 
find ways of coming in contact with the experiences of 
other teachers and especially those whose business it has 
been to test daily in the crucible of experience the freshly 
wrought theory. 

This book, reflecting a thorough study of schoolroom 
needs on the one hand and of carefully tested theory on 
the other, with their constant application, cannot fail to bring 
to any teacher that satisfying inspiration which results from 
the worthy accomplishment it will help to bring. Especially 
to those thousands of teachers, who, in rural and other small 
schools, must rely so considerably upon their own resources 
its pages will bring constant help. 

PAYSON SMITH 

Augusta, Maine 



[viii] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

CHAPTER I 

THE TEACHER 

Preparation for the work. There are certain things 
in the way of preparation that will soon be absolutely de- 
manded of the young person who wishes to teach. Even 
now, every one who plans to be a teacher, if only for a 
little while, should demand of herself that she have the 
equivalent of a good high-school course followed by normal- 
school training. This, at least, is essential if she is not to 
waste much precious material in unwise experimentation. 
She may indeed, by direct school practice and careful ob- 
servation, gain skill in her calling without this, but she will 
always be hampered, as is one who picks up a trade, by 
lack of knowledge of the best ways of going about things. 
She will waste time, energy, and material, and will fall 
short of what her success might have been if she had 
been well prepared for her work. 

School training not sufficient. The high-school and 
normal courses should form the foundation upon which a 
young teacher should build her power. They should be 
supplemented continuously by reading (both general and 
particular), by travel (though one may be a good teacher 
without having gone to Europe), by school visiting, and 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

by attendance at teachers' meetings and conventions. If 
teaching becomes a life work, there may come a time when 
a convention, a school-visiting day, or an educational book 
may bring only one or two new ideas, but a single idea is 
worth working for at that point, and the stimulus of such 
things is of more value than can be counted. Many teach- 
ers feel that when once they are graduated from normal 
school or college and placed in a school, no further work 
is necessary. Such teachers, somewhat undesirable to start 
with, grow more so with every additional year of service. 

Personal appearance. A teacher's personal appearance 
is also of moment. She may not be beautiful, but she 
should look beautiful to the children — a thing surprisingly 
easy to accomplish if one goes about it with intention. 
The first essential is good health, which may usually be 
attained by proper attention to food, exercise, rest, and 
sleep. A teacher should not remain in a boarding place 
in which the food is insufficient or unpalatable, either to 
save a few pennies or to spare her landlady's feelings. 
She should not make her chief articles of diet candy and 
pickles, nor serve herself continuous lunches through the 
evening. She should not omit her out-of-door exercise 
because of the miles walked in school, nor her rest on 
account of uncorrected papers, nor her sleep because of 
school worry or social dissipation. 

Dressing properly also helps to preserve good health 
and has undoubted effect in production of beauty. Too 
thin clothing in cold weather causes great waste of energy 
in keeping warm. If the room is right for study, one 
ought not to be uncomfortable in reasonably warm clothing. 
The teacher who goes to and from school and to the 



THE TEACHER 

playground at recess with no greater protection against 
cold and damp than that given by the regular indoor dress 
is not only endangering her own health, but is setting a 
poor example to the children. Again, school dress should 
be suitable for school. The schoolroom is not the place 
for wearing out one's old silk dresses. It is not necessary 
for a teacher to have many or expensive clothes, but those 
she does have should be appropriate to the occasion. 
Children like change, so the element should be furnished, 
not usually by many different dresses, but by the collar, 
ribbon, or bit of embroidered tie, that will delight the eyes 
of the little people and not take much from the teacher's 
scanty funds. By her own scrupulous care of hair, teeth, 
and nails the teacher should stimulate the desire for per- 
sonal daintiness in her pupils. 

A child's admiration for his teacher is a great help in 
discipline. Children are always delighted to tell of their 
pretty teacher. Mothers are invited to come to school to 
see how attractive she is. One mother was invited to come 
in the afternoon, because the teacher's hair seemed to curl 
best then. It is no uncommon thing for children to raise 
hands and ask the teacher to come to them for a minute, 
while they confide admiration for dress or ring or touch of 
beauty. It pays to make one's self look well to the school. 

Of even more importance are manner and speech. If 
a phonograph could be set up secretly in our schoolrooms, 
and we could hear at night all we have said during the 
day, repeated with the monotonous tone, or the irritation, 
or the whine, which are so often there, many of us would 
not sleep so easily. If we had these remarks to analyze 
and parse, our remorse would often be still greater, and we 

[3] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

should cease to wonder that the children's language lessons 
do so little for them. A teacher should be as polite to her 
pupils as she requires them to be to her. Her every word 
and deed should suggest the courtesy that she wishes to 
teach. Too often, in demanding obedience and politeness 
in the schoolroom, the teacher uses tones, and even words, 
that would not be tolerated elsewhere. 

Position in the community. A teacher's personality 
counts for much in a community. Sweet temper, sympathy, 
an interested and animated attitude toward life in general 
and school life in particular, tact, common sense, a will- 
ingness to take hold and help whenever help is needed, 
a sturdy dignity when dignity is desirable — all these will 
go far to aid the teacher in making and holding a right 
place for herself in the schoolroom and in the children's 
homes. She is in a position to be of much service to the 
young people of the neighborhood. A little girl once said 
to her mother in regard to the teacher : "I love her, 
mamma. I touch her dress as she goes by." " Does she 
know it? " asked the mother. " Oh, no; but I love her 
so, I like to touch her." Another child bent in humble 
adoration and kissed the teacher's hand as she stood by 
his desk a moment during a recitation. These things being 
so, how can a teacher lower herself to lend the force of 
her example toward making slang the regular language of 
the boys and girls, or to associate with them on any but 
the highest plane ! A complaint was once made concerning 
a teacher that through her one of the pupils made her first 
acquaintance with the question of beaus, the teacher having 
spent her time in the discussion of no other subject when 
in the girl's company. 

[4] 



THE TEACHER 

A teacher should not enter in any way into the neigh- 
borhood quarrels that in many places exist perennially and 
do their worst toward lowering the community spirit and 
ideals. She should identify herself with the life of the 
people with whom she is working, call upon them, attend 
their social gatherings, and mingle with them freely, but 
she should not forget that her business is to teach school, 
that her position tends to make her an example, that her 
life should be lived worthily, and that she must keep her- 
self above reproach. If she is musical, she should be will- 
ing to help out in that line, but she should not sacrifice 
her regular work for it. If she dances or plays cards, she 
may do both in moderation, unless the community as a 
whole objects to these amusements. She should be sure 
that she permits attentions only from young men of good 
standing, and then only to a reasonable extent. In many 
communities teachers receive eagerly the attentions of 
young men who are looked down upon in the neighbor- 
hood. Any teacher who knows all the men. in the place 
in a few weeks, or who is the subject of conversation in 
stores or on street corners, is doing herself, her school, 
and her profession a serious injury. If the community as 
a whole does not respect her, she might much better give 
up her school and go home before further mischief is 
done. Even with every intention of doing right a teacher 
often finds herself too deeply involved socially to be at 
her best for school work. In general, Friday and Saturday 
evenings may be given to amusement, but the others 
should usually be employed in finishing the work of the 
day, preparing for the morrow, reading, resting, and such 
occupations. 

[5] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Attitude toward school officers. The attitude of the 
teacher toward her superintendent, her principal, or her 
associate teachers, if there are such, should be cordial and 
friendly. She should be open to suggestion and should 
give her opinions when they are desired, but should not 
force them into notice. She may not always agree with 
her superintendent, but she should remember that he is 
in authority and is usually aiming at the same result that 
she is — the good of the school. He may have ideas with 
which she so disagrees as to make the position difficult for 
her, but while she stays she should be subordinate to his 
direction. It is well for a teacher to talk over school con- 
ditions freely and to ask for things needed for the work, 
but she should not at every meeting with the superintendent 
overwhelm him with complaints, with demands for working 
material or for help in discipline, or with requests for an 
increase in salary. 

The teacher makes the school. This first chapter is 
given to the teacher, because she is the important thing 
in any school. The room may be unpleasant and poorly 
equipped, the books worn and out of date, the neighbor- 
hood undesirable, the school officers difficult in many 
ways, and still the school may be of value ; but if the 
teacher is not right, the term can never be profitable. 
A teacher should take to her school every possible aid, but 
she herself must be the greatest thing of all. She must 
have the spirit of the mother and the missionary, and this 
will usually supply her with ways and means to conquer 
the situation. 



[6] 



CHAPTER II 

THE TEACHER'S EQUIPMENT 

Why needed. A wise teacher, disregarding the fact that 
school authorities are supposed to furnish all things need- 
ful for school work, equips herself with many small neces- 
sities, to tide her over waiting times and to supplement 
supplies. It is right that a superintendent should be asked 
to furnish what is needed, and a teacher is rarely ranked 
the higher for asking little ; yet through indifference of 
authorities, lack of funds, or other causes, a school is often 
hampered in its work unless the teacher fills the gap and 
provides that which it may not be her place to provide, 
but which it is hard to do without. 

The equipment box. Every teacher should secure a 
large wooden box having a cover (hinged if possible) that 
may be screwed down, and provided with a padlock or 
other fastening. It should also be fitted with rope handles, 
that it may be shipped as baggage. This box should be 
the home of her school equipment and should be kept at 
the school building. The advantage of the box is that if 
one takes the material in a trunk, one gets along with 
little, and that little must be conveyed to school bit by bit. 
The equipment should include the following things at 
least, with such others as may occur to the teacher. 

Books. A teacher's collection should contain educational 
books and books meant for relaxation. The educational 

[71 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

books include those intended for the teacher only and those 
to be used by her and the children. Every teacher should 
have a library, and every teacher should have at hand what 
may serve as a library for the children. The books best 
suited for the purpose are usually those to be obtained from 
the firms that publish schoolbooks. Most of them are in- 
expensive. The teacher may acquaint herself with them 
through the samples displayed at teachers' conventions, and 
to a certain extent by the study of publishers' catalogues. 
Dealers will usually be willing to send books to be looked 
over ; these may be retained if they prove to be what is 
desired, the money and the remaining books being returned 
at once. A teacher should aim to start a permanent school 
library immediately, if she does not find one established, but 
it will take time to acquire a library of any size, and in the 
meantime the books that go in the teacher's box will have 
to serve. As has been said, most of them are cheap. They 
may be purchased a few at a time, — as few as must be 
each term, — but their value in saving time and friction, 
furnishing spice for the regular lessons, and establishing 
a bond of sympathy between teacher and pupils will make 
them worth considerable sacrifice on the part of the teacher. 
It was said in the last chapter that the teacher should have 
the spirit of the mother and the missionary, and the mis- 
sionary who has formed the taste of a child community for 
the right kind of books has performed a saving service to 
mankind. The children should be welcome to use the 
books from the teacher's outfit in preparing their lessons, 
for filling in spare (otherwise wasted) minutes, and for 
entertainment at noon and before school, and should be 
allowed to take them home when they wish. The parents 

[8] 



THE TEACHER'S EQUIPMENT 

often get as much from the books as the children do. 
" Papa and I were talking of Damon and Pythias," said a 
seventh-grade boy to his teacher. "Would you let me take 
home your * Stories of the Greeks ' for a day or two, so we 
can read it again together? " "As long as you please," 
said the teacher, and the book stayed a fortnight, and both 
father and son were pretty well up in Greek history when 
it came back. Even where there is a public library the 
teacher's books are often preferred, partly because failure 
of memory does not mean a fine, and partly from a feeling 
that the books are a little more desirable. 

It is somewhat difficult to enumerate the books best 
fitted for the box, but many of them are of the sup- 
plementary-reader kind. A list of such is included in the 
chapter on Apparatus. There are countless books suited 
to the need. Sixty cents is the highest price I recall for 
any of the more usual ones. Many do not cost half of 
that. They may all be read by the children with delight. 
The box, starting with three or four of them, may grow 
as fast as possible to include many. 

The other class of books under the educational head 
includes those helpful in getting lessons. Every teacher 
has a few arithmetics, language books, or other common 
textbooks. These should be taken along, as they may 
prove useful. There should be also books of special helps 
for different subjects, at least one for each subject. Many 
of these are suggested in the lists at the ends of the 
chapters. They may be accumulated gradually, starting 
with the one of which the greatest need is felt, but a 
teacher should never rest until she owns them all. Back 
numbers of educational magazines should go along to 

[9] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

supplement the one that will be received each month. 
These may be reduced in bulk if the teacher chooses to 
go over the numbers and select the articles she finds most 
useful, making them into a scrapbook collection such as 
is spoken of later. 

Besides the material mentioned there should be books 
of poems and any book which the teacher may have that 
will furnish rest and relaxation — general reading matter, 
to serve if no libraries are at hand. 

Pictures. Almost as important as the books that go into 
the box are the pictures. We are awaking to the work 
done by pictures in the training of communities. All the 
magazines are recognizing this, and we find them vying 
with each other in the beauty and abundance of their 
illustrations. It is quite possible to keep well informed on 
most subjects of general interest through a study of the 
illustrations of various articles, without doing much read- 
ing of the articles themselves. Advertisers content them- 
selves with a striking picture and a few words and do not 
fail to reach the public. Schoolbooks are equipped with 
beautiful and truthful illustrations at enormous cost, and 
the publishers find themselves paid for the outlay. The 
children study the pictures with delight, but it is surprising 
how indifferent the teachers often are to the need of mak- 
ing the illustrations of greater value by a judicious use of 
them. Many teachers never use intentionally even the 
pictures furnished them in the books. The child does 
profit by them, but the profit may easily be doubled. Nor 
is it sufficient to use only those in the book. Indeed, pic- 
tures shut up in books are difficult to handle for class 
work, as one has to spend too much time in getting at 

[10] 



THE TEACHER'S EQUIPMENT 

them and they cannot be put up to be gazed at for as long 
as is needed. So a teacher should have an abundance 
of pictures in her equipment box. The manner of getting 
and using them is discussed at length in the chapter on 
Apparatus. 

Illustrative articles. Every odd nook and corner of the 
equipment box should be filled with illustrative material. 
If the teacher has any real curios, so much the better, but 
it is not necessary that this material be either odd or valu- 
able ; the little things that one might pick up anywhere 
may find a place in the collection — a bit of iron plate or 
wire, or any small metal object ; a little lump of each of the 
different kinds of coal ; a piece of quartz, marble, or slate ; 
a bit of ivory, or bamboo, or rattan ; a few pretty shells ; a 
box of mixed spices ; the dried, clean backbone of a fish ; 
samples of various breakfast foods and of the different 
grains — anything, everything, that may serve to brighten 
and make clearer the lessons of any day. 

Many teachers fail to realize what such things mean to 
children, but when a teacher has once fallen into the habit 
of using them, she thereafter knows their value and saves 
greater and greater space in the box for them. Teachers 
have seen the objects many times, so at first they seem 
common, valueless. The child has seen them less often, 
has usually failed to make connections between them and 
his school work, and is in the perceptive state, when 
everything that appeals to the senses is very dear to him. 
Description may serve in many cases for older people, 
but children need to see the things. The simplest object 
may serve many, many times. A few years ago the toy 
shops contained dolls made to represent different races ; 

[»] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

one teacher gathered in a number of these, and their 
appearance was always greeted with as much delight as 
if they were being seen for the first time. 

Besides the little odds and ends that cost nothing, the 
judicious expenditure of ten cents or a quarter here and 
there will in time produce a really good collection. If a 
teacher keeps her eyes open, and if she prefers her collec- 
tion to ice cream and certain forms of entertainment, the 
increase is rapid and the product becomes worth while. 
Besides serving for illustration, the collection grows to be 
a great aid in the drawing work. Little vases, kitchen 
utensils, toys, and the like reach out beckoning hands at 
every turn. 

Material for desk work. The teacher's equipment 
should contain material for desk work for the little chil- 
dren. The most important of all is the hectograph, with- 
out which no teacher should feel herself able to exist. 
Then there should be colored papers, sometimes called 
oak tag, outlived calendars (the larger the better), colored 
sticks, tiny pictures cut from advertisements, and other 
like aids. The way in which these should be used will 
be indicated under the head of " Desk Work." 

Material for industrial work. Industrial material is a 
valuable addition to the contents of the school box, and the 
teacher will easily find at home many things which will 
prove useful in this line. They may include bits of ribbon, 
velvet, silk, muslin, linen, and flannel ; pieces of denim, 
silkaline, cretonne, and cheesecloth ; balls of bright wool, 
remnants of silkateen or embroidery silk, empty spools, 
and bits of wall paper, bright-colored papers, and card- 
board ; knitting needles, tape needles, bonnet wire, and 

[12] 



THE TEACHER'S EQUIPMENT 

twine. Anything which may serve as a help in the various 
lines of work suggested in the chapter on manual training 
should be saved to go into the big box. 

Emergency helps. It is well to put in also a box of 
material that will be useful in case of sickness or acci- 
dents. A roll of old soft linen, which should be kept 
immaculately clean, a roll of absorbent cotton, a few fine 
needles, a little court-plaster, small bottles of camphor, 
peppermint, peroxide of hydrogen, aromatic spirits of 
ammonia, and creolin or sulpho-naphthol are the most 
useful. 

Miscellaneous articles. Lastly, the box may hold a little 
paper of the kind known as arithmetic paper, a little manila 
language paper and manila drawing paper, a dozen or so 
of cedar pencils, a few pens, a tape measure, a yardstick, 
a foot ruler, a few colored pencils, colored crayons, and a 
box or two of cheap paints. These are to fill in the gaps 
when the regular school supplies give out ; periods of being 
" hung up " come in every school. 

It is quite possible to get along without the school equip- 
ment box, or without any of the articles mentioned, but 
the teacher will be happier and her work will be far more 
effective with it, and the results accruing will more than 
make it pay in the long run. Starting humbly, the collec- 
tion will grow to large proportions, and such a box, well 
started, is an eloquent prophet of future achievements, of 
promotions, and of good service generally. No teacher who 
has prepared herself for the meeting of school emergencies 
will allow herself to drift into the attitude of trusting to 
chance. She may be depended upon to meet situations 
and conquer obstacles. 

[13] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

REFERENCES 

Bagley. Classroom Management. The Macmillan Company. 
Charters. Methods of Teaching. Row, Peterson and Company. 
Colgrove. The Teacher and the School. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
Dexter and Garlick. Psychology in the Schoolroom. Longmans, 

Green, & Co. 
Finlay-Johnson. The Dramatic Method of Teaching. Ginn and 

Company. 
Fisher. A Montessori Mother. Henry Holt and Company. 
George. Teachers' Plan Books. A. Flanagan Company. 
Gesell. The Normal Child and Primary Education. Ginn and 

Company. 
Hall. Aspects of Child Life and Education. Ginn and Company. 
Hughes. Mistakes in Teaching. A. Flanagan Company. 
Kirkpatrick. Fundamentals of Child Study. The Macmillan 

Company. 
McMurry. Course of Study in the Eight Grades. The Macmillan 

Company. 
Montessori. The Montessori Method. Frederick A. Stokes 

Company. 
Roark. Psychology in Education. American Book Company. 
Scott. Social Education. Ginn and Company. 
Smith. Systematic Methodology. Silver, Burdett & Company. 



[14] 



CHAPTER III 
THE SCHOOL BUILDING AND GROUNDS 

Cleanliness. The first requisite for the school building 
is cleanliness. A schoolroom may be roughly constructed, 
unadorned, uncomfortable, inconvenient, but there is little 
reason for its being dirty. If a teacher finds it so, she 
should see that it is made clean. Of course, it is the jani- 
tor's business to see to this work, but if he does not do 
his work properly, the teacher should look after it herself, 
till the time when she may be able to bring about an im- 
provement in the janitor service. A teacher often feels it 
beneath her dignity to do any work of this sort, but it 
demands a greater sacrifice of dignity to live in dirt than 
to scrub a bit. 

If the room is found littered and dusty, the teacher 
should sweep and dust it. If it is otherwise unsightly, 
she may organize the children into a brigade for cleaning. 
This may well be done on the first Saturday, or, if that 
proves difficult, the work may be done a little at a time 
after school. Everything that can be improved by soap and 
water should be looked after. The scrubbing should in- 
clude chairs and desks, though if these are varnished, soap 
should not be used in the cleaning. Children may scrape 
or sandpaper desks and afterwards shellack them, but the 
work must be carefully superintended. Sandpaper is an 
efficient aid in removing ink stains from the floor. If the 

[*5] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

walls and ceiling are smoked and discolored, it sometimes 
has to be borne, but a pail of whitewash may be obtained, 
or a particularly earnest and fascinating teacher may be 
able to secure from the school authorities paint enough to 
cover the surface, if she will get it applied. Often it is the 
labor more than the materials that it is difficult to obtain 
from the school board. Paint is better than paper or white- 
wash because the walls can afterwards be washed, but it 
is more expensive, of course. 

Organizing for permanent improvement. It is always 
well for a teacher to organize some kind of club whose 
purpose shall be to improve the appearance of the school- 
room, building, and grounds. Such an organization may 
be made up of the teacher and pupils only, or it may be 
extended to include the parents and any members of the 
community who may be interested enough to wish to ally 
themselves with such a society. Often it will prove a strong 
bond to unite teacher and children, and it will usually tend 
to produce a better feeling in regard to school property, 
which will result in improvement, additions, and more 
careful use. 

Bookcase, school cabinet, and other furniture. When 
the room has been cleaned, the teacher should look over 
her resources and proceed to make the most of them. 
She will probably find a small bookcase containing the 
school supply of books. It should be her aim to make 
this grow to a large one and to create a companion piece 
that shall serve as a school cabinet. Teachers who are re- 
ceiving present-day training ought to know how to con- 
struct, from boxes, something that may be used for a 
cabinet till a better one can be obtained. If a tall box is 

[16] 



THE SCHOOL BUILDING AND GROUNDS 

stood on end and fitted with shelves, and a door is made 
from the cover, we have a good beginning. The box may- 
then be stained any suitable color or covered with dark 
green or brown cartridge paper. Shelves for books or for 
display of work may be made in the same simple way and 
placed wherever an opportunity is given by an unoccupied 
corner or small piece of wall space. A good table for many 
purposes may be made by standing a small box on end and 
nailing the cover of a large box to it, the small box serving 
for the foundation, the large cover for 'the top. By- such 
means many articles of furniture may be obtained which 
will have a special value in the eyes of teacher and children. 

Blackboards. There will be a certain amount of black- 
board space. If the board is in bad condition, it may be 
bettered by the application of blackboard slating, which 
comes in small cans and may be put on easily with a 
brush. If the board space is too small, it may be supple- 
mented by use of blackboard cloth or brown paper. Either 
of these materials may be used for making maps. 

Decoration of room by pictures. A clean room is in a 
measure beautiful, but the room in which teacher and chil- 
dren are to live day after day should be more than clean. 
It should be adorned. There should be several pictures — 
not so many that the beauty of any one is lost, not of neces- 
sity expensive, but each really good and artistic. It is pos- 
sible to find copies of many masterpieces unframed and 
mounted on gray paper. Though it is nicer to have framed 
pictures, the unframed ones or those framed with a passe- 
partout binding may serve at first. It would be well for 
the teacher to have a few in the big box. These she may 
use till they are no longer needed, or, if they are the only 

[17] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

ones she finds it possible to get, she may well leave all or 
a part of them when she passes on to the next school. 
One teacher, by the expenditure of a dollar, got several 
such pictures, put them on the wall with brass-headed tacks, 
and was surrounded all the while by admiring children. 
The pictures included the Sistine Madonna, the Madonna 
of the Chair, Murillo's Saint Anthony, the Saint Cecilia 
of Raphael, and other like subjects. These immediately 
took away the uninhabited aspect of the place and were 
a continual source of pleasure to the whole school. 

Good framed pictures need not cost too much. There 
are some Prang colored prints which include Mother Goose 
subjects that are particularly pleasing to children and indeed 
to older people. These sell, mounted, for fifty cents each. 
Framed, they make large pictures, about 22 by 28 inches. 
It is better to order them unmounted and buy a sheet of 
gray mounting board for them, as the express or parcel-post 
charges greatly increase the cost. Unmounted, they may 
be rolled and sent by mail for a few cents. They should 
be ordered from The Prang Educational Co., New York. 
The Rhine Prints offered by Atkinson, Mentzer, and 
Grover are good and inexpensive. Prints not easily dis- 
tinguished from high-priced ones, except after long service, 
may be obtained much more cheaply at the large depart- 
ment stores than elsewhere. A teacher visiting any large 
city would do well to look in such stores for them. There 
are also many good pictures to be purchased cheaply from 
The Perry Pictures Company and other like firms. 

Sometimes a schoolroom may contain an unsuitable pic- 
ture in a good frame and the teacher may make a substitu- 
tion. Great care should be used in selecting. In choosing 

[18] 



THE SCHOOL BUILDING AND GROUNDS 

pictures for a schoolroom, beauty should be made the first 
requisite. Good pictures of Washington, Lincoln, and 
Longfellow are suitable as subjects, but other portraits are 
not usually desirable, and a really beautiful picture is pref- 
erable even to these, though it is very fitting that a Wash- 
ington school should have a picture of Washington. No 
picture at all is better than an ugly one, hanging before 
the school day after day, making its imprint of ugliness. 
The pictures should be hung close to the top of the black- 
board, not six inches above it, though I am aware that I 
may offend some art critics in this matter. The ordinary 
schoolroom arrangements always make pictures hang too 
high to be seen well by the children, and long observation 
has convinced me that the height is more to be considered 
than the space. 

Many schoolrooms have been decorated by means of the 
ever-present " soap order," and since the soap order is bound 
to exist, it might as well be of service here. Entertainments 
will often prove a source of revenue. 

Other decorations. Not only may the schoolroom be 
adorned with pictures, but often bits of the children's 
work may be arranged around the walls — bright-colored 
paper chains and those made from kindergarten straws 
and small circles of colored papers arranged alternately, 
pretty cuttings, nicely woven mats, strings of berries or 
seeds. Festoons of green are suitable at Christmas time, 
strings of pop corn and cranberries at Thanksgiving, and 
bunting or crepe paper on patriotic holidays. None of 
these should stay up too long — not long enough to be dust 
traps or to become tiresome. They serve as a change and to 
awaken an appropriate response to seasonable suggestions. 

[19] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Plants. Plants are invaluable if the room is heated so 
they will not freeze. If there is not continuous heat in 
the schoolroom, they may be kept there in the fall and 
spring, and some of the children may take them home 
during the coldest weather. 

An aquarium, containing a few water plants and any form 
of animal life, is a pleasing addition to the schoolroom. 

Flowers. There should be flowers about the room in 
the flower season. The children will bring them in abun- 
dance, in regulation children's bunches — a little of every- 
thing. Many teachers put them into dishes without regard 
to the principles of harmony or of flower arrangement that 
they have been taught and are now supposed to be teach- 
ing to their pupils. It is often difficult to know how to 
avoid hurting the children's feelings and yet have artistic 
groups of flowers. One of the best ways is to have a large 
bowl or pan into which are put all unarranged flowers. 
Out of this they may be taken as desired. Some are never 
taken. As they are not thrown away, no child has occasion 
to be grieved. His flowers may be the next to come, and 
at any rate they are there in the room. 

The teacher may arrange the flowers herself or it may 
be a general exercise in which the fitness of the different 
flowers for each other's company may be discussed and a 
selection made. It should be remembered that it is much 
better to save a child's feelings of right and kindness than 
to elevate his artistic taste, but he may easily be trained 
to right ideas of beauty. He should know that too many 
flowers should not be grouped together, that they should 
have different lengths of stem, that they should be of one 
kind or of kinds that seem to belong together, and that 

[20] 



THE SCHOOL BUILDING AND GROUNDS 

there should be plenty of green. Sometimes it is possible 
to purchase a few vases for the school at small cost. Vases 
of clear glass or those green in color usually harmonize 
best with the flowers. If this cannot be done, one may use 
olive or pickle bottles, since these are of convenient size 
and are often artistic in shape. All labels should be re- 
moved, and the bottles should be clean. The vases of 
flowers should be placed where they will look best in the 
room, not crowded several in a group or set up in rows. As 
soon as the flowers can by any stretch of imagination be 
called faded, they should be thrown away. 

"The shrine of beauty." The suggestion has been 
made by some teacher of art that in every schoolroom there 
should be a small shelf, in a corner or other convenient 
place, which should be considered a " shrine of beauty." 
On this should be displayed each day some truly beautiful 
article. It might be a vase of flowers or a vase alone, a 
shell, a leaf, or some simple, well-proportioned manu- 
factured article. It was maintained that such a shrine 
might do much toward developing the aesthetic sense of 
the children. 

Blackboard decorations. Borders made with colored 
crayons, or a calendar with a spray of flowers or leaves 
behind it, will add to the beauty of the room. The deco- 
ration may well be simple, and a teacher will quickly grow 
in power to produce a good one. Care should be taken to 
avoid crude coloring ; gray or violet crayon or crayon of 
the necessary complementary color will be found useful in 
softening the effects. Children are not critical, but glaring 
reds, blues, or yellows in a board decoration are not pleas- 
ing. It is not always necessary to finish a drawing at one 

[21] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

time. The teacher should work long enough to make it as 
good as possible. Artistic children may sometimes help. 

A curtain of dull green or some other soft color should 
have a place, and upon it should be put the children's 
good work, or it may be used for display of the pictures 
before referred to. Other pictures may stand on the chalk 
rail. Some teachers stretch a length of black mosquito 
netting over a board. The pictures may be fastened to 
this, the netting not showing at all against the black 
surface of the board. 

Orderliness. When the room has been arranged with 
attention to as many as possible of the above suggestions, 
it should be kept in good order. This calls for constant 
care from both teacher and pupils. It is well to have the 
children formed into certain committees who shall care for 
particular things. The officers may be changed from time 
to time. All litter should be disposed of at once. Chil- 
dren should not be allowed to tear waste paper into bits or 
crumple it into a ball. It should be folded up and laid on 
the desk till collected for the waste basket. Many teachers 
encourage the use of a small cloth bag hung beneath each 
child's desk. Whatever is done with the waste paper, the 
teacher should inspect it carefully before it is burned, though 
this inspection should not be made noticeable. Exami- 
nation of this kind brings to light much needless waste 
and often silly or improper notes, which should be traced 
to their source and the source purified as far as possible. 
No litter should be allowed in the aisles, the books and 
other material should be arranged neatly in the desks, and, 
above all, the teacher's desk should present a model. It 
takes only a minute to put things away as they are used, 

[22] 



THE SCHOOL BUILDING AND GROUNDS 

but if a teacher's desk is not cleared up during the day, the 
result is distressing and astonishing. 

Things out of place constitute disorder, and hats, coats, 
mittens, and rubbers have no business to be strewn around 
the room. The wraps should be hung upon the proper 
hooks ; the rubbers should stand beneath them side by side, 
heels to the wall, as they look more anchored so. Many 
teachers make use of snap clothespins having the child's 
name. These hold the two rubbers together. Mittens may 
be put under a stove or upon a steam pipe to dry, but when 
dry they should be put in the proper place. Lunch boxes 
should have a particular place and be kept there. Tin 
cans, decayed fruits, withered flowers, and such things do 
not add to the beauty of a schoolroom. 

The blackboards should be cleaned carefully with an 
eraser, after each lesson in which they are used. At recesses, 
at noon, and at night they should be wiped with a piece of 
soft cloth. The teacher should include an abundance of 
this in her packing box. The boards should be washed 
with clear water when necessary, though too much wash- 
ing is not good for them. Hard rubbing is often better, 
and a board may be almost perfectly cleaned by rubbing 
carefully with a cloth that is damp, not wet. Erasers should 
be clean. They may be washed by dipping them in water 
and rubbing them together vigorously, afterwards rinsing 
thoroughly. Chalk dust should not be left scattered on 
chalk rails for any length of time, and it is better usually to 
keep the chalk in a box than on the rail. A clean black- 
board is an ornament to any schoolroom, and a blackboard 
adorned with good writing is still better to look upon, but 
no schoolroom can be attractive if the boards are covered 

[*3] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

with scrawls of writing or half -erased examples. A teacher 
is often judged solely by the appearance of her boards. 

Outbuildings. The outbuildings should be looked after 
carefully. It should be the business of the school authori- 
ties to see that they are in a condition of decency at the 
beginning of the term, and that of the teacher to see that 
they are kept so. After the teacher who finds them in bad 
condition has done her best to improve them, her voice 
should be heard early and often till they are put right. 
Indecent inscriptions or pictures should be effaced by some 
means. A daily, yes, a semidaily, inspection should be 
made, and the children should be trained as rapidly as 
possible toward a state of disgust for anything of the sort. 

The school yard. The school yard should contain a pile 
of sand in which the children may play at recess and where 
many of them may work out much illustrative work in con- 
nection with their lessons. The yard should be raked and 
cleared up generally. An effort should be made to plant 
trees if they are lacking. A flower garden should be started, 
shrubs introduced, and vines planted around schoolhouse 
and outbuildings. A few years of care may change a bar- 
ren waste into a place of beauty, and morning-glories, 
nasturtiums, hop vines, and Virginia creeper may make 
quite a stride toward it in one season. 

REFERENCES 

Brown pictures. G. P. Brown, Beverly, Mass. 

Kern. Among Country Schools. Ginn and Company. 

Meier. School and Home Gardens. Ginn and Company. 

Perry pictures. The Perry Pictures Company. 

Prang colored prints. The Prang Educational Company. 

Rhine prints. Atkinson, Mentzer, and Company. 

[24] 



CHAPTER IV 

APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

Need of tools. Though scanty material often develops a 
saving turn of mind, though a skilled workman may make 
his own tools or improve upon the inferior ones furnished 
him, yet it is true in general that no good work in any line 
can be done if material and tools are lacking. In school 
work, books and other tools and supplies of various kinds 
are needed. They should be accumulated with eagerness 
yet with caution in selection, handled with utmost care, 
and made use of in such a way as to be productive of 
best results in shortest time, with least wear and tear. 

Economy of school material. The children should be 
taught economy regarding all school material. Books, pen- 
cils, paper, pens, chalk, everything of the sort, should be 
kept in mind by the teacher, and all waste rigidly sup- 
pressed. Children often feel that things which are the 
property of the town never have to be paid for by anybody, 
and that no care of them is necessary. A little talk on the 
principles of taxation would clear up this idea. Teachers 
themselves are often so careless in this respect as to be 
positively dishonest, feeling no compunction in using 
school supplies for private consumption at home and tak- 
ing permanent possession of textbooks whenever they 
wish — a proceeding which is nothing more nor less than 
stealing. Often teachers are wasteful of supplies, using 

[25] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

large amounts of material when small would do as well. 
My own observation is that nine out of every ten young 
teachers, if they were to have a class cut circles an inch in 
diameter out of four-inch squares of any material, would 
have each child place the circle exactly in the middle of 
the square, and never give a thought to the resulting waste. 

Care of books. A teacher should be as careful of each 
book as if it were her own and absolutely new. I have seen 
teachers fresh from the sharpening of many lead pencils, 
with fingers black from contact with the lead, fall calmly 
to study of lessons or to looking up some disputed point 
without even wiping the hands. A record should be made 
of all books given to children, so that the teacher may know 
whom to hold responsible. Early in the term the books 
should be inspected and their condition learned. All marks 
should be erased. Any needed mending should be done. 
Much use may be made of adhesive transparent tape, ad- 
hesive cloth, and loose-leaf binders. The books should be 
covered and the child's name put upon the cover. There 
should be frequent inspection during the term and a thor- 
ough taking account of stock and repairing at the close. 
Each child should feel the need of care of his books and 
that the teacher will know what happens to them. Being 
made to bring a cent has given many a little child a large 
start in the right direction, particularly if parents were wise 
enough to make him earn the cent. 

Children should be taught how books may be abused. 
They should never be bent too far open, never marked 
unreasonably, never turned down or chewed at corners, 
never packed too closely on the shelves. Covers too tightly 
put on loosen bindings ; so does a fall. A large book 

[26] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

dropped is seldom as good afterwards, so neither teacher 
nor children should carry about too many at a time or 
pile too many upon a desk. 

Fewer books than usual should be kept in desks. This 
will insure better care, more frequent inspection, better 
proportioned study time, less noise, less loss of time in 
repacking. Certain books may well be kept in the desks, 
but many of the others may be kept in the bookcase or in 
neat piles on some unused desks and distributed when 
needed. Older children may generally have most of their 
books under their own care. Readers are often too tempting 
to be kept in desks, and any child who makes a hobby of a 
particular subject is not to be trusted with the entire care 
of the book relating to it. If children are allowed to take 
books home, they should be cautioned against laying them 
on ground or doorsteps, getting them wet, or leaving them 
at home or at other places where they will not be ready for 
work next day. 

Distribution of apparatus. Children should be trained 
to help distribute books and all other material. It should 
be done in such a way as to save time and disorder. Books 
should usually be given and taken by rows and put into 
the case in proper order, one child doing the work for the 
row. Sometimes papers and light material may be handed 
in bunches to the children at the front desks, who may 
each take a piece and pass the bunch to the child behind 
him. Collection may be made in the same way. When 
many things are to be given for one lesson, as, for example, 
in a drawing class, teacher and pupils may help in the 
work, the teacher passing the material slower of distribu- 
tion and the children the rest. Often everything needed 

[27] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

for a painting lesson may be put upon a large board and 
taken by the teacher down the aisles, children from four 
desks helping themselves to it at the same time. 

It is not well for a teacher herself to distribute books or 
papers to a whole class one by one, nor yet for her to stand 
still and await the slower distribution of a single child. 
Training children so they understand just what to do and 
the best way of doing it saves much time and is a general 
help in discipline. Time taken in such training is not 
wasted, and if the teacher says, " All hold papers in the 
right hand," they should be held in that way if it takes 
the whole session to bring it about. 

Tools should be ready. Pencils and other tools should 
be kept in readiness. Pencil sharpening should be under 
the supervision of the teacher and seldom done in school. 
I remember visiting a school in which ten minutes of school 
time were occupied in getting pencils ready, the children 
standing around the wastebasket, or waste heap, as it might 
have been called when the orgy was finished. The work 
might just as well have been done before school — the 
children were all there. 

Pupils should understand that they must be responsible 
for being ready. If a child fails to get in readiness, he 
should sit idle and do his work at another time. This will 
soon quicken the memory and induce a feeling of respon- 
sibility. " I have forgotten my book " or <l I have the wrong 
book" should produce a gentle expression of sympathy 
from the teacher, but usually no permission to make good 
the lack. Rarely then will such things be forgotten, and 
a general power to look out for things is worth more than 
having material at hand for a single lesson. 

[28] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

Acquisition of books. Many books are needed for use 
in even a small school. The teacher will have to furnish 
a part of them, as has been said, and their use will abun- 
dantly pay her for her sacrifice, but it is very desirable that 
a permanent school library be built up as soon as possible. 
The children may be asked to contribute books if they can do 
so. It should be impressed upon them that what is wanted 
is not merely entertaining stories, but something really 
worth while from a literary or other educational standpoint. 
The teacher's books will serve as a sample. The superin- 
tendent may be asked to furnish certain books for the 
library. Friends of teacher or school will often contribute, 
and a really valuable reference library has sometimes been 
built upon a foundation started by retaining one or two of 
the best of the old books of a set, when an exchange of 
books on any subject was made because the whole set was 
no longer to be used for classes. A book does not cease 
to be valuable because it is no longer the best for class use. 

Another excellent way is to buy, for supplementary read- 
ing, a set of geography or history or other similar read- 
ers and to use them for regular readers for a year or so 
and then get another set of supplementary books, adding 
the first set to the reference library. Another way is to 
ask for a set of supplementary readers to be used for silent 
reading, the set to consist of one of as many kinds as there 
are members of the class. These may be read by all in 
turn and then added to the library. Such purchase of 
books would be far more economical than to buy so many 
of one kind, as is often done. An incentive to care for the 
books would be furnished if the children were interested 
in enlarging the library. 

[29] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Books the most valuable tool. Books are the most gen- 
eral and valuable of the tools of any school. They should 
be used in such a way as to get the most out of them. The 
teacher should read them herself, and should refer the 
children to particular things in them. Pupils should be 
trained into a habit of expecting to get from books infor- 
mation regarding any subject, and any contributions to reci- 
tations which show research should be encouraged. The 
teacher should open lines of thought and then speak of 
certain books as being good along those lines. She should 
tell parts of things, and send the pupils to books to satisfy 
aroused curiosity. She should tell what she is reading, and 
should leave books around. In all these ways the pupils 
may be trained toward a right appreciation of a book as 
a companion and as a tool. 

Homemade books. Closely allied to the regular books 
we find the made book. In looking over magazines for 
pictures, one often finds whole articles that are within the 
comprehension of children. These may be taken out by 
unbinding the magazine, and then they may be fitted with 
a brown-paper cover. The name should be written upon 
the cover and the whole bound together by a cheap fasten- 
ing. Small ones may be held by the little wire fastenings 
that attach price tags to articles purchased at stores. In 
time valuable articles for reference may be accumulated. 
The children should be encouraged to bring clippings, 
which may be pasted into a scrapbook or kept in enve- 
lopes suitably labeled. Scrapbooks are made nowadays of 
strong manila paper, arranged in pockets on pages, the 
whole being bound into a book. Such a book may become 
a most useful tool. 

[3o] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

Pictures the next tool. The picture is the next most 
helpful tool for school use. Reference has been made to 
it in the chapter on the teacher's equipment. The most 
fruitful source of supply is the magazine. Magazines are so 
cheap and plentiful now, that there is rarely a house where 
they are not going to waste in larger or smaller quantities. 
Let a teacher once make known her desire for them, and 
they arrive through various channels. Of course they can- 
not be kept in bulk, but the pictures may be cut out, and 
so the value of a year's magazines be preserved in an 
inch or so of thickness. A novice at the business has dif- 
ficulty in selection. Often there is a good picture on each 
side of the sheet, but life is made up of sacrifices, and it 
is better to make a choice and forget the loss. If the pic- 
ture is not mounted, one may use both sides. It is wise to 
mount the more desirable ones, as they get much less wear 
in this way. The mounts should not be too heavy, causing 
the picture to take up too much space. Various things 
may be used for mounts. One teacher, who worked in a 
large hotel during vacation, begged the discarded menus 
and had splendid material for mounts for smaller pictures. 
Some teachers who boarded in the house of a printer 
found scraps of waste cardboard to be had for the asking. 
No teacher before had thought of using such things. For 
mounting, homemade paste may be used ; or jellitac, a 
prepared paste that comes in powder form to be mixed 
with cold water. For the making of paste, cornstarch is 
best, the paste being made like any starch, but cooked a 
long time and strained through cheesecloth when cool. 

Many pictures do not need to be mounted. They may 
be pinned on a curtain as wanted. It is well to adopt 

[3i] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

some sort of classification, that one's resources may be 
easily available. The pictures may be catalogued or those 
on kindred subjects may be kept in the same large enve- 
lope or folder. Care should be taken to select the pictures 
that are really helpful in general subjects rather than those 
that are merely beautiful, though the beautiful ones have 
their place, of course. Many pictures may be picked up 
that are remarkably good for geography and history and 
nature work. There are many that contain a story, that 
are valuable in connection with language work. The ad- 
vertising pages furnish a large number of these, and some 
of the illustrations are pretty good as works of art. In 
these advertisements there are quantities of tiny pictures 
that may be used for busy-work material, which will be 
referred to later. 

Railway folders give fine pictures for geography. The 
companies send out these folders and booklets to interest 
people in the sections shown, and there is no better way 
to arouse interest than through the schools, so it is per- 
fectly legitimate to secure any such by sending a stamp or 
the ten cents required. Often they are absolutely free. 
Many things are advertised by means of small pictures, 
and a teacher may accumulate them if she keeps the idea 
in mind. A young teacher once remarked to an older one 
who had a large number of pictures for use in school, 
''Those that came my way didn't seem good enough, 
but I see a lot of them in your collection, doing good 
work." It is better to start humbly and save everything 
at first, winnowing when the collection has got large. 
Post cards, which are justly having such popularity, are 
excellent and have the advantage of being stiff enough 

[32] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

to stand up, while not occupying much room. A teacher 
should do her best to get a good post-card collection for 
herself and the school, but should frown in season and 
out of season upon the caricatures that are crowding 
themselves upon the market and, in combination with the 
colored Sunday supplements, doing their best to eradicate 
any sense of good art or high ideals of life that schools 
may be able to inculcate. Good pictures for school use are 
published by such companies as the Brown and the Perry, 
at one cent each. They are valuable, but a good collection 
of pictures may be obtained without directly buying many, 
if it is gone about with determination. 

The school collection. Every school should be encour- 
aged to have a permanent collection that will not have to 
move with the teacher's box. If the teacher does her best 
to arouse enthusiasm in the children, they will produce 
the pictures from somewhere. Frequently they will find 
suitable material for mounting and will help to mount 
them, thus getting in addition some manual training. 
The pictures may be kept in the school library or refer- 
ence cabinet, and the children may see that they are 
properly arranged and help to get out such as are needed 
in connection with the lessons. 

Use of pictures. Having secured the pictures, the 
teacher should use them. She should look over every 
lesson with the idea of finding those that will help. 
Often a bunch of pictures may be passed around during 
the study period as an aid in getting the lesson. Usually 
it will be enough to put the necessary ones on the curtain 
or the chalk rail and suggest that the children look at them 
at recess, after school, or during any spare time in school. 

[33] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Sometimes the pictures should be shown to the class. If 
the lesson is on lumbering, for example, as the different 
steps are referred to, the pictures should be directly shown. 
It is better for the teacher to pass up the aisle and have 
the children on each side look, than to pass the picture 
from hand to hand, which takes too much time and atten- 
tion. If the look is not sufficient, even when accompanied 
by involuntary holding, further opportunity may be given 
as mentioned above. The name should be below the pic- 
ture, not pasted to the back, so that children may easily 
know at what they are looking. 

If a picture is large enough to be seen from the front 
of the room, it may be shown to the whole class instead 
of being taken through the aisles. It should be remem- 
bered that it is the children who need to see, not the 
teacher. A picture should be held so that neither the 
teacher's body, head, nor arm obstructs the view. Chil- 
dren cannot see through a teacher's finger, even though it 
be a finger eager to point out the facts of the picture, and a 
pencil fluttering over the surface not only prevents a clear 
view but makes children nervously annoyed. Usually a 
teacher can hold a picture directly in front of her and 
look over it from above, but she must be careful not to 
hold it so low that some of the class cannot see. 

School cabinet. Mention has been made of the school 
cabinet and of the little, common things helpful for pur- 
poses of illustration. It is to be hoped that the teacher's 
collection will be large, for this will serve as an incentive 
to her and to the pupils to secure a permanent collection 
for the school. The teacher may be able to furnish some 
things for a starting point. Many manufacturers are glad 

[34] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

to assist in the education of the children, and by judicious 
appeal to the proper authorities one may often obtain mate- 
rial to illustrate each step in an important manufacture. 
Often the children will have something to contribute, and 
valuable material may be acquired. If they are asked to 
bring samples of anything they have, made of cotton or 
wool or rubber, and if such contributions are mounted on 
a chart or put all together into a box, great enthusiasm 
is easily aroused. The school collection may also include 
common minerals, articles useful for the science work, 
and many things good for drawings, such as leaky or 
cracked cooking utensils of good shape and size, outgrown 
toys, and other like articles. The contents of the cabinet 
should be brought out when in any way they illustrate 
the lesson in hand. It makes no difference if last week 
they served to illustrate another lesson for the same or a 
different class. 

The collection may become a nuisance if it is not 
properly guarded against rats, mice, and moths. Tin 
boxes and small or large bottles solve the problem nicely, 
though it is well to use moth balls freely when closing up 
things for a long vacation. Moth balls are cheap when 
bought by the pound, and the odor soon ceases to be 
objectionable. 

Loans. The children will ably assist in making a per- 
manent collection of interesting things as soon as they 
realize that it is not rare and valuable objects that are 
needed, but common, everyday ones. It is possible and 
desirable, however, to have this greatly supplemented by 
means of loans. If articles are carefully handled and 
returned uninjured, many things may be borrowed for a 

[35] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

session or a day from various families in the neighbor- 
hood. The teacher should see that things are returned in 
as good condition as when received, even if it takes time 
and trouble on her part. Usually people are glad to lend, 
but unwilling to repeat a bad experiment. Everything 
worth having is worth making an effort for, and the occa- 
sion is often of value as a means of impressing the children 
with certain responsibilities. 

Effect of use in class. Any teacher more than gets her 
pay for outlay of time, care, and money in connection 
with the use of outside material, in the progress of her 
work, and the renewed interest of the children. It is often 
complained that children, particularly rural children, will 
not talk in school. Work of this sort will surely produce 
freedom of expression, unless the child is made of wood 
and the teacher herself something of a dummy. 

The blackboard. The blackboard is a ready tool and 
should be used in connection with nearly all lessons. Like 
any other valued tool it should be kept in perfect order, 
always ready for use. Boards of blackboard cloth are 
needed often and have the advantage that the teacher 
may sit to put on such work as is done out of school, and 
that they may be put up and taken down as need arises. 
In using the board for drills, the class should be massed 
in small compass where all can easily see. When explana- 
tions are in process a pointer should be employed. It is 
much better than finger or pencil. Care should be taken 
that the one using the board should stand on the correct 
side of the work and not shut off the view of anyone. 
This direction will serve as well for map use, and it may 
be well to state that individual work, carried on by teacher 

[36] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

and one child at a map or board when the rest of the 
class can neither see nor hear, may be supposed to be in- 
teresting and profitable to the whole class, but rarely 
proves to be either. In the same line comes work in 
which one child works at a table for benefit of the rest. 
He should stand behind the table, facing the class, and 
care should be taken that everyone can see, instead of 
only the child doing the work. 

Maps and charts. Maps and charts are much needed 
to supplement board work and books. Excellent maps 
may be made upon blackboard cloth or upon large sheets 
of brown paper. Such maps may be used for history and 
geography and may present all necessary features for 
the work. 

Much permanent work, such as drill tables or reading 
material, may be put upon sheets of brown paper with a 
rubber pen or with a pointed eraser dipped in ink. The 
rubber at the end of an ordinary cedar pencil is excellent 
for this work. These sheets of paper take but little room 
and save a great deal of labor. Charts may be prepared 
also by use of the stamping machine, or sign marker, if 
one can succeed in obtaining the necessary money to pur- 
chase it. It consists of a set of small letters, capitals, and 
figures, each on a little stamp. The printing is done 
each letter separately, is large enough to be seen across 
the room, and may be made upon paper or cloth. Large 
and excellent number and reading charts have been made 
by its use. 

Drill cards. Drill cards of various kinds are necessary. 
In the reading work one needs them for sight words, 
phonetic words, and phonograms ; that is, single sounds. 

[37] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

For number they are good for multiplication and division 
drills and for combinations to twenty, as well as for many 
other drills which will occur to the teacher. .They may 
be made of development paper in varying sizes, but in 
general they should be large enough so that the fingers 
will not cover the work. Directions for handling will be 
given under Reading. 

Other apparatus. The teacher will find her work made 
easier and more effective by the use of some or all of the 
following material. Most of it may be obtained from the 
general school-supply houses, like the J. L. Hammett 
Company, Boston or New York; the Milton Bradley 
Company, Boston or Springfield, Massachusetts'; Edward 
E. Babb and Company, Boston ; A. Flanagan Company, 
Chicago. Often one can get what material she needs from 
a printing house. The nearest bookstore may contain it, 
and sometimes it has to be made by the teacher herself. 

Oak tag or manila development paper. May be obtained from 
any of the above-named school-supply houses, or from any printing 
house. 

Various cheap papers, white or manila, for arithmetic, language, 
or drawing. Probably furnished, but may be secured from same 
sources as above. 

Colored papers, frequently called studio. Cost about two cents 
for a sheet 22 by 28 inches. Very attractive colors, and may be 
made to serve almost any purpose for which colored paper is wanted. 
Any school-supply house. Its place may be filled by cartridge paper, 
which comes in rolls for wall covering. 

Mounting board. Various weights, a light weight being most use- 
ful for general purposes. School-supply houses or printing office. 

Bradley^s kindergarten crayons (black). School-supply houses. 
A great help in the writing work with little children. About six 
inches long and nearly an inch in diameter. A dozen in a box. 

[38] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

Eagle pencils, No. 773. School-supply houses or bookstore. In 
favor for children's writing. Of large diameter. 

Dixon's cartoon pencils, No. 450. For writing on big sheets of 
brown paper, as for a blackboard. School-supply houses. 

Dixon's colored crayons. Beautiful in color and fine for use, 
particularly with older children. Their place may be filled by 
crayola or any of the cheaper colors now On the market. School- 
supply houses. 

Dixon's colored crayon pencils. Same colors as the crayons and 
better for use with little children. School-supply houses. 

Water-color paints. School-supply houses. The Milton-Bradley 
Semi-moist serve well. Their place may be taken by any standard 
school boxes of color. The pans may be renewed without buying new 
boxes. The cheap paints found in the market may be used instead. 

Weaving mats. School-supply houses. Those mats are best which 
have wide strips. For learning, one may make mats of table oilcloth. 

Colored sticks and pegs. School-supply houses. 

Clay. School-supply houses. 

Plasticine. School-supply houses. Better than clay for work with 
little children. Does not harden and may be used many times. 

Toy money. School-supply houses. May be made, if preferred, 
from development paper. 

Boston guard penholders. School-supply houses. 

Paper rulers. School-supply houses. May be made from devel- 
opment paper. Great saving of noise. 

Pitchpipe. School-supply houses. 

Seating plan. Edward E. Babb and Company, Boston. 

Placards for store or arithmetic classes. Made from development 
paper. May use ink, paints, or pictures from fruit, vegetable, or 
furniture catalogues. 

Sand tray. Made of zinc. A shallow wooden box will do. It 
should be quite large. 

Globe. School-supply houses. A cheap one serves every purpose. 
A croquet ball may do considerable service as a small globe. 

Solids for drawing or arithmetic work. Made of clay or devel- 
opment paper. 

Alcohol lamp. A chafing-dish lamp or any cheap one. May be 
made from a tooth-powder bottle and a piece of wicking. 

[39] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Brushes. Cheap ones, bought at the five-and-ten-cent stores, for 
use in connection with industrial work. 

Ticket pins. School-supply houses or Dennison Company, Bos- 
ton or New York. For putting up commendable drawings or other 
papers. 

Picture wire. Stretched along the top of a blackboard, it serves 
better than cord for suspending papers. 

Gummed cloth patches. Small circles of gummed cloth, having a 
hole in the center. Excellent stays for the tops of paper charts. 
The charts may then be hung from two or three nails. Many may 
be kept in small space in this way, to be used as needed. Dennison's 
Number 2 are satisfactory. 

Mending material. Adhesive transparent tape, gummed cloth 
tape, loose-leaf binders, T binders. Dennison Company or school- 
supply houses. 

Book covers. Holden Company, Springfield, Mass. 

Jellitac. A prepared paste in powder form. Arthur S. Hoyt, 
90-92 West Broadway, New York. Probably to be obtained from 
any dealer in books and school materials. 

Day^s White Paste. Diamond Paste Company, Albany, N.Y., 
or Edward E. Babb and Company, Boston. 

Raffia. McHutchison & Company, 1 7 Murray Street, New York. 
Does not sell in small quantities, but by clubbing or by selling to 
the children, twenty-five pounds may be easily disposed of. 

Reeds. F. B. Alexander, Watertown Street, West Newton, Mass. 

Easy Dye. School-supply houses. 

Bartlett looms. J. L. Hammett Company, Boston or New York. 

ABC Weaving Looms. The ABC Weaving Loom Company, 
Toledo, Ohio. 

Fulton Sign Marker. Any school-supply house or retail dealer 
in school supplies. 

Rubber marking pen. Any dealer in school material. One may 
use instead a pointed eraser or the eraser in the end of an ordinary 
cedar pencil. Dip in common ink or in india ink. 

Automatic shading pen. Edward E. Babb and Company, Boston. 
For inking letters or figures. 

The "Perfect Scrap book.'''' Combination Envelope Company, 
Holyoke, Mass. 

[40] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

Leathers. W. A. Hall, 119 Beach Street, Boston. 

Cheap reproductions of good pictures. G. P. Brown & Company, 
Beverly, Mass., or The Perry Pictures Company, Boston. 

Hectograph No. 1. Cooper's gelatin, 3 ounces ; glycerin, 1 8| 
fluid ounces. Soak gelatin in water overnight ; in morning pour off 
excess of water ; put gelatin in a double boiler ; add glycerin ; cook 
(uncovered) about five hours. 

Hectograph No. 2. Glycerin, 20 ounces ; white glue, 5 ounces ; 
water, 12 ounces. Soak the glue in the water overnight; bring to 
a boil ; add glycerin ; boil six or eight minutes. 

Hectograph No. 3. Glycerin, 1 pint ; white glue, 4 ounces. Dis- 
solve the glue in hot water, using as small a quantity as possible ; heat 
the glycerin in hot water ; stir the glycerin slowly into the glue ; do 
not cook further. 

Hectograph No. 4. Glycerin, 1 8 fluid ounces ; gelatin, 2 ounces ; 
glue, \ ounce. Soak gelatin in water until soft — one half hour, per- 
haps ; drain off all water possible ; place in a double boiler until dis- 
solved ; meanwhile place glue on back of stove in a small dish in a 
little water ; when glue and gelatin are dissolved, pour glycerin and 
glue into the dissolved gelatin and leave until thoroughly mixed ; let 
it boil about five minutes. 

All these hectographs are known to be good. Several are given 
to meet varying conditions and tastes. For each is needed a pan, 
about 11 x 9 x| inches, or 12 x 9 x 1 if that seems more con- 
venient. Such a pan may be obtained at any tinsmith's, and it is 
better to have a cover for it and to have the edges of both pan and 
cover hemmed. 

When the hectograph is cooked sufficiently it should be poured 
into the pan slowly to avoid bubbles. When cool it is ready for 
use. 

Hectograph ink may be purchased of any news dealer. It comes 
in black, green, or violet. This ink is likely to prove more satisfac- 
tory, but it is possible to make the ink for one's self, if desired. For 
it use violet or green aniline (two parts), acetic acid (two parts), water 
(six parts). Hectograph ink is really dye, so one should be careful in 
the use of it. Wherever a tiny particle of the dried ink finds lodg- 
ment, a spot of color will appear if water comes in contact with it. 

[41] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

A Dixon's Eterno pencil may be used instead of the pen and ink, 
by wetting it as one writes. The ink is rather better, as it is difficult 
to keep the pencil evenly moistened. 

To hectograph one should write the copy on well-sized paper with 
a clean steel pen. The hectograph should then be moistened slightly, 
and the copy placed face downward upon it for perhaps a minute, 
till a good impression is left. Then the sheets of paper should be 
applied, rubbed down firmly, and removed as rapidly as possible. 
When as many as are required have been taken, the hectograph 
should be washed with a sponge or soft cloth and warm water. 
The hotter the water the more quickly the cleaning is done, but the 
more rapidly the hectograph wears away. It should be dried wholly, 
either by wiping or draining, before putting on the cover, or it will 
mold. 

If in the hectographing the copy blurs, the hectograph was too 
moist; if the papers stick, the sponge may be used to moisten it 
more without fear of removing the impression, provided the water 
be cold; it may be moistened if the papers fur and so cover the 
copy with a little coating which obscures. If the hectograph seems 
too soft, it should be boiled some more; if it seems too dry and 
cracks, it may be heated and a little more water or glycerin added ; 
if it gets worn and ragged in the using, it may be put into the oven 
for a moment or two, when it will again cool evenly. 

A hectograph is one of the teacher's greatest helps. Probably no 
one device is of so great value. She should never be without one 
and should use it very frequently. 

Books for teachers' use or for children's library. There 
are many good books to be obtained for the use of the 
teacher or to stock the children's library. Lists for the 
former purpose are placed at the end of each chapter. 
The books included in these lists have been chosen be- 
cause of their usefulness to teachers rather than because 
of their fitness to be employed as textbooks in the hands 
of the children, though many of them would of course 
serve well in the latter capacity. 

[42] 



APPARATUS — ITS SOURCES, CARE, AND USE 

The list of books useful for the pupils' library is too 
long to be included here. A teacher may acquire much 
information regarding such books by study of publishers' 
catalogues. The teacher of the smallest school, writing 
directly to any publishing house for books, catalogues, or 
any desired information, will receive prompt and courteous 
response in all cases. There is usually no need to give 
streets and numbers, since most of the publishing houses 
are well known. It is possible also for a teacher to make 
arrangements with the nearest bookseller, by which he will 
secure all needed books and allow a proper discount, as is 
done by the publishing firms. 



[43] 



CHAPTER V 
STARTING IN 

Early arrival desirable. The teacher should go early 
to her school. She who is landed at her schoolhouse a 
half hour before time to begin starts at a disadvantage, 
particularly if she has no idea of the conditions in the 
locality or of where she is to board. If she is near enough 
so that she can conveniently do so, it is a good plan to go 
to the school a few days before and see what things need 
to be done in preparation for beginning. If this is not 
possible, she should go at least a day before ; that is, she 
ought to be there by Saturday noon at the latest, if school 
is to begin Monday. This gives her an opportunity to 
examine the register if the last teacher has left one, as 
she ought. She can get some idea of names and classes, 
find out what books there are, and discover the general 
resources of the school, besides doing what cleaning may 
be necessary and making special preparation for the work 
of the first day. 

The first day. When the day comes she should be at 
the building an hour before the time for the session to 
open, and lest the heart of the inexperienced teacher 
should fail her, she should keep busy during that hour. 
She should continue the practice of being at school early, 
for many reasons. Being on hand this first day, she can 
greet each new arrival and get quite a good account of 

[44] 



STARTING IN 



stock before the actual work begins. Two or three min- 
utes before the regular hour she should ring her bell and 
assemble her school. It will be an unnecessary formality 
the first day, but of considerable importance later. The 
extra minute or two is valuable for getting settled so as 
to be really ready for work when the hour strikes, though 
attendance should be reckoned from the regular time. 
This may be called 
the warning bell, and 
prompt response should 
be expected to its sum- 
mons. It is the only 
time in the school day 
when a bell is really 
needed, simple signals 
serving better at other 
times as being far less 
disturbing to the school. 

Seating and taking 
names. The children 
may be allowed to sit 
where they please at 
first, but should be made to understand that this is only 
temporary and that the seating will be attended to later. 
Then the teacher may arrange it at leisure, with due 
regard to height of desks and chairs, defective sight or 
hearing, and disturbing elements of various kinds. 

The names and ages of the pupils may be taken im- 
mediately. Many teachers use a seating plan like the ac- 
companying illustration. It is made of pasteboard with 
stiff paper or vellum stitched to form little pockets, as many 

[45] 




EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

as there are desks. Into each is slipped a card with the 
name of the occupant of the desk. This plan is of value 
for enabling a strange teacher to locate the name of a par- 
ticular child at a glance, and the cards are easily changed 
to accommodate reseating. Many teachers believe that the 
taking of names should be postponed till later, but it is 
a great advantage to be able to call a child by name. If 
slips containing the number of row and desk be ready to 
be passed, and the older children write their names and 
that of any small child seated near, the process will take 
but a short time. The slips may be put immediately into 
the desk plan, and the teacher is much less hampered. 

When all are in readiness on the first day the teacher 
may ask if there are others to come, express her pleasure 
that, so many are present, and by some quiet little remark 
insert the opening wedge for good attendance during the 
term. 

Need of watchfulness. During this day the teacher 
should watch closely and reserve her judgment. She may 
be able to locate her leaders and to formulate plans for 
her campaign. Sometimes the children who seem bright- 
est and most attractive do not wear well. The child who 
appears stupid may be only shy, the slow one may be a 
pretty persistent worker ; so snapshot decisions regarding 
the school are unwise. 

Opening exercises for first day. The program for the 
day has been planned. Of course the opening exercises 
come first. These, for this time, should be very simple, 
consisting perhaps of the reading or repetition of the 
twenty-third psalm, repetition of the Lord's Prayer, and 
the singing of some hymn which would be familiar to 

[46] 



STARTING IN 

all — "America" is usually a safe one. If the teacher is 
not a singer the hymn may be omitted for a few days, and 
in places where state laws or school-board action forbid 
Scripture reading, the teacher will, of course, omit that. 

This is all that is really necessary for the exercises of 
the first day, though if the teacher chooses, she may say 
a word or two regarding the beauty of the psalm or speak 
of good schools helping to make a good country, after the 
singing of " America." She may write some quotation 
containing a helpful thought on the board and have the 
children read it in concert, saying she would like to have 
them learn it during the day. Care should be used in select- 
ing it. It should contain a virile thought that will stimulate 
boys as well as girls to effort. If the teacher wishes to say 
a few words to the school as to their common aims regard- 
ing the school work, it is all right for her to do so, but 
such a talk should be very short and may well be omitted. 

Program for first day. Following the opening exercises 
comes the active work of the school. Certain books have 
to be given out. It will be well to have them all collected 
at the end of the day, till the teacher can distribute them 
permanently and make a record. This she may plan at 
night, after the children are gone. 

The work of the first day may include arithmetic, read- 
ing, spelling, geography, and perhaps language. The 
older pupils may perform long examples in the four proc- 
esses, or they may write the multiplication tables or be 
given any drill work that can be done without much super- 
vision and that will give the teacher an idea of their 
powers. They may be cautioned about accuracy and may 
be furnished with still further work by being required to 

[47] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

prove the examples. In place of this, if wished, a reading 
lesson may be assigned to be studied or long lists of 
spelling words may be given. Usually, indefinite work 
like reading and spelling is much less likely to keep the 
children occupied than that in which the work is more 
specific. If spelling is assigned for the first day, it is well 
to have it studied by having each word that the child does 
not know he can spell written a certain number of times, 
though this will not serve for later spelling study ; or 
the older pupils may be given paper and pencils to write 
an account of their vacation or their ideas upon some 
other definite subject. Something should be chosen about 
which the teacher knows that the child has knowledge, 
that he may not feel unable or unwilling to comply. The 
object of this first work is to keep the older children doing 
something till the teacher has a chance to get things going. 
Having assigned work to the older ones, the little ones 
may be called for reading. Into this lesson should go all 
the variety and life possible. The teacher may impress the 
older ones by her manner of conducting this first class. 
After the reading, the little children may be shown how 
to do some form of busy work. They may work at this till 
tired, after which they may be turned out of doors for a 
while, if the weather permits, otherwise they may be given 
something to play with quietly. After the first class is 
settled the next smallest or else the most troublesome grade 
may be called. Care should be taken that plenty of work is 
given and that the children do not spend too long a time 
at the same thing. The object, the first day, is to keep 
them occupied, and it is not specially essential that any 
particular kind of work be done. 

[48] 



STARTING IN 

The regular program. Beginning with the second day 
the regular program should be started upon, though cer- 
tain less important lessons may be omitted on that day, as 
details in regard to passing and collecting work and the 
regular conduct of the classes will take a longer time than 
the teacher will need for them later. It is not necessary 
that the time occupied by the classes on the second day 
should be exactly that of the program. 

Place of hard and easy subjects. In making the regular 
program, the hardest studies should be planned for the 
freshest periods. Among the hardest studies may be 
counted arithmetic, technical grammar, and reading up to 
the point where the children have grasped the mechanical 
part of it — that is, for at least two grades. The arithmetic 
work of the first grade, if arithmetic is taken in that year, 
is not difficult or exhausting. The easy studies should be 
placed just before recess or closing. In general, the hours 
from eleven to twelve and from one to two are hardest, 
though if a longer nooning is taken, the first hour of the 
afternoon session would be better. With the single hour 
at noon, the best time is from nine to eleven and from 
two to three-thirty or four. 

It is well to put the arithmetic early and the grammar 
and first-, second-, and third-grade reading in good hours. 
The order of beginning the day with the highest reading 
class and working down is bad. The higher reading classes 
call for interest and attention, but do not furnish work tax- 
ing to the brain. History, some of the language work, 
drawing, nature study, may go into the less favorable hours. 
Writing should not come when the children have just 
come in from active play, so it is better not to put it at 

[49] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

the beginning of the sessions, nor immediately after recess. 
Music may be given at the beginning of a session to calm 
down with or when specially difficult work is being done, 
but there should not regularly be a long lesson in music 
in the early morning, when children are ready for hardest 
brain work. Music may well be placed between exhausting 
studies, as it serves as a rest and relaxation if properly 
managed. Though the formal gymnastic work calls for 
active attention and is wearying, the physical exercises 
which are needed in the ordinary school are restful and 
may be put in between classes as often as possible. 
Physical exercises should not usually be given just before 
or after recess, as teachers often unthinkingly arrange 
for them. 

The program should never be planned so that a child will 
have in succession several exercises calling for written work. 
In mixed or primary schools space should be allowed on the 
program for a story. Usually, the last thing before dis- 
missal is a good time for this. With single higher grades 
the story may be taken with the language. It is advisable 
to assign a reasonably long period for opening exercises, 
as into this time may go many of the extras that one 
wants and yet sees scanty time for. If possible, it is well 
to have a period in the school program marked " Optional." 
This should be used habitually for the extra most needed 
on that particular day. It should not be dribbled away by 
allowing each lesson to run over a little, nor should it be 
employed always for the teacher's hobby. 

Arrangements for making most of time. Some grading 
may have to be done by the teacher in a rural school. It 
should be planned so as to secure to the individual the 

[5o] 



STARTING IN 

best possible results, without injury to the school as a 
whole. Much time may be saved by judicious combination. 
After the third year in school any two consecutive grades 
may read together, alternating the reading material. For ex- 
ample, the fourth and fifth may read the books furnished 
for fourth-grade reading one year and those for the fifth 
the next. There is not much difference in the difficulty 
of the material. Certain drill work in arithmetic may be 
given to quite a part of the school instead of to classes 
singly. Some composition work may be handled with 
more than one class. Classes may be given spelling in 
combination, or several spelling lessons may go on at one 
time. Combinations may often be profitably made in a 
rural school or in one of several grades by including all the 
children of the school in two divisions — the oldest in one, 
the youngest in another ; or, if the scholars vary much in 
age, a third division may be made to include the pupils of 
middle grade. This subdivision is good for music, drawing, 
nature work, or similar subjects. 

Many times alternation may be made useful, history be- 
ing alternated with geography, drawing with writing, music 
with nature work ; or a regular period may be arranged for 
writing, drawing, music, and the like, and the divisiojzs 
alternated as above. Certain subjects may take the place 
of others once a week. It should be remembered that call- 
ing two classes together is not a combination unless they do, 
at least in part, the same work. Such calling is not good 
planning, as one class sits idle when it might be working. 

Recitation periods should be short. The program periods 
should not be too long. If everything is ready, much can 
be accomplished in even ten minutes. The teacher should 

[5i] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

plan her work as a good housekeeper plans hers — or a 
dressmaker or a carpenter — and so make every minute 
count. If preparation has been made beforehand, a short 
recitation period will cover what is necessary. Children 
tire easily, and ten or fifteen minutes of vigorous work, 
with teacher and pupils all alert, will accomplish more 
than thirty under less favorable conditions. 

Written program. It is well to have a written program 
for each day. This program should include study periods 
for the various classes, as well as recitation periods. The 
teacher may have this program on a board or chart, or she 
may have only the recitation program there and tell the 
children what to study, seeing afterwards that they do as 
told. They should not be allowed to study as the spirit 
moves, for they will misproportion their time, losing run 
of it or studying their favorite subjects. Effort should be 
made, however, to train children to keep account of their 
own time and plan their own work. 

Changing program. Having a program, it is well to 
follow it, as a rule. Unforeseen changes confuse the chil- 
dren. Lengthening recitation periods lengthens some 
study periods and shortens others, and either brings the 
children unprepared to class or allows a lot of time for 
waste. Omitting subjects is common and confusing. Grad- 
ually a teacher gets in the way of omitting the subjects 
she cares least for, or of shortening their time and pro- 
longing her hobbies, coming out at night a subject or so 
short. The teacher needs to be very exacting with herself 
in observance of her program time, fully as much on her 
own account as on that of the children, though occasionally 
a program may be broken. There are times when special 

[52] 



STARTING IN 

guests have taken great pains to visit a school and are eager 
to see its workings. It seems a pity for them to be enter- 
tained by written lessons or study periods if a different 
arrangement can be made without too great loss. 

Sample programs. As a help in program making, a few 
are included here. They are not intended to be at all per- 
fect or to present the only proper order of arranging work. 
They do, however, keep in mind certain well-established 
principles that govern school work. 

Program for a School of Two Grades 

9.00- 9.15 — Opening Exercises. 

9.15- 9.35 — VI Arithmetic. 

9.35- 9.55 — VII Arithmetic. 

9.55-10. 15 — VI Language. 
1 o. 1 5-1 0.30 — Writing. 
10.30-10.45 — Recess. 
10.45-10.50 — VI Word Study. 
10.50-10.55 — VII Word Study. 
10.55-11.15 — VII Geography or History. 
1 1 .1 5-1 1 .20 — Physical Exercises. 
1 1 .20-1 1 .35 — Science. Alternating, or a combination. 
1 1 .35-1 1 .55 — Drawing. Alternating, or a combination. 

1.30- 1.50 — Music. 

1.50- 2.00 — Spelling, Phonetics, Voice Drills. 

2.00- 2.20 — VII Language. 

2.20- 2.40 — VI Geography or History. 

2.40- 2.50 — Recess. 

2.50- 3.10 — VII Reading. 

3.10- 3.30 — VI Reading. 

3.30- 3.40 — Optional. 

The grades have been termed the sixth and seventh for 
convenience. Any other numbers would have served as 
well. If a teacher prefers a longer period for some of the 

[53] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

subjects, it may be taken, and the work in drawing and 
nature study put into some one or two sessions and made 
longer. Some teachers prefer shorter recitations each day, 
while others like better to cut down the number and use 
a longer time for each. No more than thirty minutes 
should be allowed for any class, and with grades below the 
eighth and ninth at any rate, the periods should not usu- 
ally exceed twenty minutes in duration. 

Program for a School of Four Grades 

9.00- 9.15 — Opening Exercises. 

9.15- 9.30 — I Reading. 

9.30- 9.40 — II Word Study and Phonetics. 

9.40- 9.55 — III Arithmetic. 

9.55-10.00 — Physical Exercises. 
10.00-10. 1 5 — IV Arithmetic. 

10. 1 5-10.25 — I and II Number. Such regular number work as 
is suited to first grade may be taken by them 
in combination with second. 
1 0.25-1 0.40 — Recess. 

10.40-10.50 — -III Word Study and Phonetics. 
1 0.50-1 1. 00 — IV Word Study and Phonetics. 
1 1. 00-11. 10 — III and IV Music. 
1 1 .1 0-1 1 .25 — IV History or Geography. 
1 1 .25-1 1 .35 — Writing. 
1 1. 3 5-1 1. 50 — III Reading. 

1 1. 50-1 2.00 — Optional. Nature, industrial work, physiology, or 
any needed subject. 

1. 00- 1. 10 — Opening Exercises and Nature Work. 

1. 10- 1.20 — I Reading. 

1.20- 1.35 — II Reading. 

1.35- 1.50 — III Geography or History. 

1.50- 2.05 — IV Language. 

2.05- 2.10 — Physical Exercises. 

2,10- 2.20— - 1 and II Drawing or Music. 

[54] 



STARTING IN 

2.20- 2.35 — III and IV Drawing. 
2.35- 2.50 — Recess. 
2.50- 3.05 — III Language. 
3.05- 3.20 — IV Reading. 
3.20- 3.30 — Spelling. 

3.30- 3.45 — Optional. Stories, industrial work, or whatever 
easy work is wished. 

Program for a School of Five Grades 

9.00- 9.15 — Opening Exercises. 

9.15- 9.30 — I Reading. 

9.30- 9.40 — II Word Study and Phonetics. 

9.40-10.00 — fill, IV, and V Arithmetic. Combination for 
1 0.00-1 0.15 — J drills, and then the time divided as seems best ; 

I varying each day, probably. 
10.1 5-10.20 — Physical Exercises. 
10.20-10.30 — I and II Number. 
1 0.30-1 0.45 — Recess. 

10.45-10.55 — f III, IV, and V Phonetics and Word Study. Any 
10. 55-1 1.05 — J combination that seems best, depending upon 

[ reading arrangements. 
1 1 .05-1 1 .1 5 — Music. 

1 1. 1 5-1 1. 30 — V, or IV and V History or Geography. 
1 1 .30-1 1 .40 — Writing. 
1 1. 40-1 2. 00 — III, or III and IV Reading. 

1. 00- 1. 10 — Opening Exercises and Nature Work. 

1. 10- 1.20 — I Reading. 

1.20- 1.35 — II Reading. 

1.35- 1.50 — III, or III and IV Geography or History. 

1.50- 2.05 — V, or IV and V Language. 

2.05- 2.10 — Physical Exercises. 

2.10- 2.20 — I and II Drawing, Music, or Writing. 

2.20- 2.35 — Drawing — older pupils. 

2.35- 2.50 — Recess. 

2.50- 3.05 — III, or III and IV Language. 

3.05- 3.20 — V, or IV and V Reading. 

3.20- 3.30 — Spelling. 

3.30- 3.45 — Optional. Story, industrial or other easy work. 

[55] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

These programs are not arbitrary, but merely suggestive. 
If the session does not close till four o'clock, a few periods 
may be lengthened, another optional inserted, or one for 
help of special pupils — not general help. If combinations 
are not possible, the drawing and writing may alternate ; or 
the industrial work and drawing and nature work may go 
to Friday afternoon, or once a week may take the place 
of language, arithmetic, or reading ; or the drawing and 
music may be given to all, instead of to two divisions as 
allowed by the program. If there are more than five classes, 
the same plans need to be followed. 

The points to be observed are that the reading for the 
little children comes early, also the arithmetic with older 
pupils ; that the hours from eleven to twelve and from one 
to two, being not very favorable ones, are not given to such 
difficult work, except for the little children who have had a 
much longer resting time. They are supposed to go home 
at recess or else amuse themselves afterwards in the yard 
or at the play table, the recreation being planned by the 
teacher. It is to be noticed that classes alternate as far as 
possible, so that pupils need not go too long at a time 
without recitation work. 

REFERENCE 
Seating plan. Edward E. Babb and Company, Boston. 



[56] 



CHAPTER VI 
GOING ON 

Work should be well planned : use of executive ability. 

After the work is once started, the teacher should make 
every effort to keep it going with no friction or loss of 
time. Everything should be planned to this end. The 
teacher should go to school early and stay as late at 
night as is necessary, leaving the room in order when 
she starts for home. Everything possible should be got 
ready ahead. The children should be trained to help, to 
know just what to do, and how to do it in the easiest and 
quickest way. Awkward arrangement for passing may 
make a marked difference. Sauntering instead of going 
briskly eats up a lot of time. Having books arranged in 
order will save many minutes, and prompt obedience to 
directions many more. The skilled workman gains as much 
by making no unnecessary movements as by moving 
more quickly. 

The teacher should always be on the watch for easier 
and better ways of doing things, for making everything 
count in a day's work. She should cultivate executive 
ability. The possession of this quality is about all that 
distinguishes the master workman from the ordinary day 
laborer at any trade, and teaching is no exception. A plan 
book, in which is entered what is proposed to be done dur- 
ing a day, and which is gone over at night to see how far 

[57] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

one has failed to accomplish plans and what have been 
the reasons, is a great help. 

Care to have things right. Care in assigning lessons, 
so that no time need be spent in disputing, is essential. 
The importance and character of the assignment of lessons 
will be discussed further in the chapter on the recitation. 
Exact directions regarding written papers and the habit 
of using a set form for names and headings, with other 
like things, will be of value. Much time will be saved if 
the teacher habitually does things right at first and trains 
children to do the same. 

Arousing interest. Objective work will brighten impres- 
sions and create interest ; so will encouragement to the chil- 
dren to talk freely and to question in any subject. There 
is nothing so effective in teaching as getting free, natural 
expression of opinions by pupils. They should tell what 
they think, and ask what they want to know, just as they 
naturally do out of school hours. Talking not only arouses 
interest, it shows what the child's difficulties are and makes 
them easier of correction. Teachers are afraid of chil- 
dren's questions, and the lazy teacher regards them as too 
much work, so we find the pupils continually frowned 
down, till they become contented with mere rote work — a 
condition which is utterly foreign to child nature anywhere. 

Work important and necessary. School work should be 
made so pleasant that a child will want to work. He should 
be made to feel the importance of knowledge in general, so 
that he will want to learn even at the price of much effort. 
This is inspirational work. Many teachers act as if the 
getting of knowledge were not of the slightest importance, 
and a large number of children have the same attitude, 

[58] 



GOING ON 

together with a feeling that it is not their affair. School 
and home should combine to crush the wrong attitude in 
this and produce the right. Neither can well do it alone. 

Children may be brought to a state where they will look 
forward eagerly to " knowing a lot" and be willing to make 
the necessary effort. Usually, however, the impetus must 
come in connection with particular things. Any child 
will work uninterruptedly if by that means he sees himself 
able to attain some greatly desired end. It becomes the 
teacher's problem to furnish that immediate interest. If 
all possible means of making school work pleasant are em- 
ployed, and if the pupil clearly sees an end in view, he will 
not expect nor desire to escape the hard work that must 
exist in school just as much as everywhere else in the world. 

Things should be ready. Time is not saved either in 
recitation or study by starting before one is prepared. 
Between classes the teacher should see that things are 
ready ; that desks are in order, all noisy and unnecessary 
things put away, material where it can be got at easily, 
every tool at hand. She should answer the demands of 
the children as far as is needed. Acquaintance will make 
it easy for her to judge. When all the studying class are 
settled to work, then she may give her attention to the 
division reciting, withdrawing enough of it to keep run of 
what the rest are doing. She should watch her school 
just enough to know what is going on. She may, if she 
chooses, answer a quiet signal, but she should not assist 
in work or too greatly divide her attention. 

Children should be taught responsibility and judgment. 
The children at the desks should understand that hands are 
not to be raised except for unusual needs. Much has been 

[59] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

accomplished when it is impressed upon a school that they 
are to work quietly and busily by themselves until the 
recitation is finished, and that it is usually selfish to inter- 
rupt. They should be taught that if a tool gives out or 
for any reason they are unable to work at the usual thing, 
they should not sit idle but find some other employment. 
A newcomer in a grammar school, on being unable to 
obtain the use of the large school dictionary, sat for twenty 
minutes and waited for a chance. Any regular pupil of 
the school, having ascertained by a glance that no oppor- 
tunity was afforded her, would have turned immediately 
to something else and worked during the waiting time. 

Study work should be independent. Though the teacher 
should not give much help to the studying child during 
her recitations, yet she should take some means to ascer- 
tain how her children study. This may be done sometimes 
during their recitation periods, or by taking an occasional 
period to superintend only, or by means of out-of-school 
helping times, or by casual observation and conversation. 
She should try to teach right habits of study. As has just 
been said, pupils need to be busy, and it is usually better 
for them to work individually. Studying together, helping 
each other, and the like are all open to objections. Too 
often the children play instead of working, or if they work, 
one usually does much more than the other. If older chil- 
dren help younger, the older is often wasting his time. If 
he can spare it, he might well be advanced a grade instead. 
The help given by the older child consists too often in 
doing the work himself. It is, at best, injudicious help, 
and though it may serve occasionally, it should not be 
too frequent. 

[60] 



GOING ON 

Change of work or leaving places. The smallest chil- 
dren should not be allowed to work in school much more 
than three hours a day. If they must be in the room 
throughout the session, as is often the case in a rural 
school during the winter term, they should be furnished 
with a large variety of work that is in itself play or even 
with regular play if quietly carried on. Dolls, building- 
blocks, softly running toys, and other interesting material 
that will be mentioned elsewhere are perfectly legitimate. 
They may be allowed to leave their seats to go to their 
" library," construction table, or play corner, when their 
assigned work is finished. Older ones may have per- 
mission to consult the dictionary or get reference books, 
but the teacher should know the reason for any moving 
about and will frequently have to regulate the conditions, 
else the study time will be a time of general migration. 

Means to be employed to get work done. School exists 
for training children to good habits, and for the doing of 
educative work. Many incentives will have to be employed 
to secure the accomplishment of school work. The chief 
and best incentive is furnished by arousing in the children 
a desire to know, both generally and in the particular in- 
stance. This is the work of time and inspiration. Too 
great emphasis cannot be laid upon the value of arousing 
an immediate interest which is to satisfy an immediate 
need. As preliminary and supplementary to this, many 
means will have to be used. The privilege of taking home 
good work serves well with smaller children, as does the 
display of it upon the school curtain. One is surprised to 
find the value attached to this by little children, though 
we are all pleased by modifications of this form of approval. 

[61] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Prizes of various kinds may secure good work, but the 
dangers attending the use are so great as to have thrown 
them into marked disrepute. They are certainly unsafe 
in the hands of young teachers. 

Keeping in at recess and after school is perhaps one of 
the most abused means. Recesses should be for play and 
rest, and the idle or dull child is seldom made less idle or 
dull by loss of recreation periods. The slow child needs 
his resting time as much as the quick one. Keeping after 
school is better and must be done sometimes, but care 
should be taken lest it be prolonged too far or occur too 
often. If it is to last many minutes, the child should have 
a rest before settling down to it. It is often necessary to 
help children after school. If a child is to stay for such 
help, he should be allowed a recess or relaxing work for 
a short time preceding the close of school. Doing indi- 
vidual work with a child out of school and detaining him 
for unfinished tasks are two different things, the child 
being in a very different attitude. 

Home work. Home work is a much-discussed problem. 
In a rural school where terms are short and home enter- 
tainment limited, it is not very objectionable. In other 
cases it needs to have careful consideration. Unfinished 
work might often be completed better at home than at 
school. Work calling for strong thought by the child may 
better be done at school. Supplementary work like corre- 
lated reading is excellent for home employment. Since the 
child's school day is as long in proportion to his develop- 
ment and strength as his father's working day, the assign- 
ment of a considerable amount of work to all pupils, every 
day, to be done at home is of questionable advantage. 

[62] 



GOING ON 

Tests and rank. Tests are used presumably as a means 
of determining a child's progress, but they serve as a very 
large incentive to work. Incidentally, in connection with 
rank, they also serve wonderfully as an incentive to worry 
and dishonesty. A teacher should use great care in hand- 
ling both the testing and the ranking. A written test is 
valuable in helping to get ideas into line, but made a large, 
or the only, factor in determining promotion, it is wholly 
unfair and cruel. Tests are frequently merely traps, or, at 
best, memory tests. School should train more than the 
memory. Written lessons, divested of the large element 
of worry, are useful and should be employed freely ; tests, 
sparingly and with judgment. 

Rank depends largely upon the teacher's mood. It is 
much better for word estimates to be employed in marking 
rank, instead of figures. For a teacher to be required to 
keep marks of any kind for her pupils in each recitation 
is to spoil her direct work in the teaching process in nearly 
all cases, though it may be well to estimate each child's 
recitation in an occasional lesson, to serve as a test for the 
teacher's general estimate of worth. Rank has far too 
large a place as an incentive to good work. It does not 
furnish a high motive. 

Promotions. Promotion should depend upon general 
knowledge and general power. A child should be sent to 
a higher grade when, in the judgment of the teacher, he 
will gain more from work there than from a repetition of 
what he has already gone over. Promotion should often 
be based upon power rather than achievement. A fixed 
amount of work is needed in some subjects, where ability 
to go on depends upon actual knowledge, as is the case in 

[63] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

arithmetic and grammar ; but a pupil can do good work 
in geography, history, reading, spelling, drawing, and many 
other subjects if he has not learned all the geographical 
or historical facts, done the special reading, or spelled the 
particular words of the preceding grade. This is doubtless 
the reason why arithmetic and grammar have been made 
the basis of promotion in so many schools. Yet even here 
it is safe to be careful. Reading is surely a better guide 
with younger children. If a child can read, he can acquire 
much information in all subjects. Grammar is rapidly 
passing out of style in elementary schools, and the lan- 
guage work that is taking its place does not have its parts 
so dependent upon each other. Arithmetic is the most 
isolated subject. One may be a dunce in it and yet be a 
useful and cultured citizen. To base promotion upon this 
subject is manifestly unfair in many instances. 

We are too rigorous rather than too easy regarding 
promotion, and we too often base it upon wrong things. 
Figures will not always tell the tale. One child may be 
perfectly able to do the work but fail of particular knowl- 
edge ; he may well be brought up by extra work. Another 
fails through general immaturity or lack of power ; he 
should be held, though rarely more than once in the 
same grade. A teacher should not have a wrong attitude 
toward the child who does not come quite up to her 
standard for admission to her grade. Many things have 
to be taken into consideration in determining a pupil's 
place in school, and it should be kept in mind that a child 
has periods of advance and retard mentally, that some 
children cannot learn some things, and that the school as 
an institution exists for the education of the child and must 

[64] 



GOING ON 

lend itself willingly to whatever best promotes that educa- 
tion. If ever the great strain produced by fear regarding 
the grade above can be removed, promotions will be better 
made and a large obstacle to our educational progress done 
away with. The teacher, relieved of the dread that a par- 
ticular child may not be pronounced worthy, can teach 
that child and all her class in better fashion. 

Promotions should of course occur more frequently than 
once a year. It is only a rare case when a child is a whole 
year behind his class or can be at once thrust a whole year 
ahead. Semiannual promotions are much better, but even 
these fail to meet the needs of a large number. The best 
plan, when it can be arranged, is work on the group idea, 
a child being pushed from group to group as his progress 
requires. This is easily brought about in classes of younger 
children and is practicable in many of the more advanced 
classes. In the subjects less essential for promotion the 
classes may work as a whole and be grouped only when it 
is necessary. 

Report cards. The home report card should form a 
means of communication between teacher and parent. At 
present it too often seems to speak a foreign tongue to the 
parents, who see ranks falling below requirement month 
after month and are yet dazed with surprise at failure of 
promotion. Report cards might well take the form of 
monthly notes to parents, stating conditions and needs 
regarding the child. The regular report card, as now 
used, should at least be supplemented by a note in cases 
where home stimulus is necessary or where explanation 
is needed. If we could succeed in establishing rather dif- 
ferent and closer relations between home and school, such 

[65] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

as are aimed at by parent-teacher associations, much might 
be accomplished. The rural school has advantages over 
the city or village in many of these particulars. 

Attendance. The attendance record should be kept 
carefully. The card with the child's name upon it may be 
slipped out, to be returned when he arrives and accounts 
for his absence, if attendance is kept by means of the seat- 
ing plan. A book record should be made also. Regularity of 
attendance should be insisted upon as far as possible. No 
child who is really ill should come to school, nor should the 
teacher frown upon absence when the weather is entirely 
unsuitable, but she should know why the child is absent, 
and all absence or tardiness for causes that the teacher's 
judgment pronounces unreasonable should be looked after 
as far as she is able. Elevating the pupils' ideals, estab- 
lishing interest in work, creating a general school spirit, 
appealing to child or parent individually, are means that 
may be used. Devices such as races, cards with " All pres- 
ent," or flags for different rows may be tried. One teacher 
sent home for the children and soon had no need to do so. 

If a teacher can but establish confidence in herself 
throughout school and community, making children and 
parents feel that the school work is such that they cannot 
afford to miss it and that the teacher has both good judg- 
ment and right intentions, many of these troublesome things 
will adjust themselves. It cannot be done in a day nor a 
week, but time and effort will accomplish much. 

REFERENCE 

Teachers' Plan Book and Progress Record. Milton Bradley 
Company, Boston or Springfield. 

[66] 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

Teacher responsible for health. One of the things to 
which it is the duty of the teacher to give much attention 
is the securing of the physical comfort of the child, both 
during the time he is in school and for the future. The 
teacher is in the place of the parent during a large part 
of the day. In many ways she has a better opportunity to 
observe the child than has the mother, as during the home 
hours he is either getting adjusted to the conditions of the 
day or else is fatigued by his work at school. The teacher 
is often better informed regarding child hygiene than is 
the parent, and at any rate should know as much about it. 
The fact that the children are grouped together in more 
or less crowded rooms brings a larger responsibility and a 
greater need for extra care. Every teacher should feel and 
act as if she combined in herself the offices of both mother 
and physician. 

The room should be comfortable. One of the first essen- 
tials is a comfortable room. The temperature should be 
regulated by a thermometer, the degree at which it should 
stand depending somewhat upon conditions, since if the 
floor is cold, one may suffer in a room whose temperature 
is apparently correct. In general, it may be said that when 
the thermometer is above seventy degrees the room is too 

[67] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

warm for good work, neither should it fall below sixty-five, 
and sixty-eight is about normal. 

Cold-air schools are all right and very desirable in cer- 
tain circumstances, but it is to be remembered that children 
in such schools are dressed for out-of-door living. One 
should not try to run a cold-air school in a room that pre- 
tends to be heated and whose ventilation is not suitably 
planned. As a usual thing children should not sit in an 
ordinary schoolroom, wearing the wraps which will consti- 
tute their protection when they go out of doors. If a room 
that is supposed to be heated is cold enough so that chil- 
dren need out-of-door garments to be comfortable, the 
scheme of work or the arrangements for heating should be 
changed, yet too hot a room is as bad as too cold a one. 

The ventilation should be looked after, windows being 
opened at proper intervals, but care should be taken to 
keep the children exercising actively while the windows are 
wide. I have seen windows opened in the midst of winter, 
and the air suffered to blow directly on heads, necks, and 
backs of delicate children who were thinly clad. Some chil- 
dren can stand this heroic treatment, but others cannot. 
Some wise teacher said, " Better a little slow poison than 
so much sure death," and his is a good rule to follow. 
When windows furnish the only ventilation, a screen of 
cheesecloth in a rough wooden frame fitted into the 
window will admit the air but prevent the draft. A board 
may be adjusted to the lower sash and the window raised 
upon this, so that an opening for air is made between the 
sashes. In usual weather, if drafts are guarded against, 
there is no reason why abundant air should not be admitted 
through open windows all day long, and in any schoolroom 

[68] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

the windows should be opened and the air thoroughly 
changed during the giving of physical exercises and at 
other times when the teacher's judgment pronounces it 
necessary. It is helpful for the teacher to step into the 
pure air for a moment occasionally, as in this way she is 
more sure to detect trouble in the air of the room. 

Flies. Flies make a room very uncomfortable and are 
also a well-known source of disease. Things that might 
tempt them, like apple cores, remnants of luncheons, and 
dirty faces, should be looked after. Screens may be made 
by tacking mosquito netting over the whole window frame. 
A length may even be fastened at the top of the door, but 
of course flies will creep in, in spite of precautions. Means 
of disposing of them are suggested in the following extract 
from an article on the subject, in the World's Work of 
August, 19 10. The same article is given in the National 
Geographic Magazine for May, 19 10. Some one of these 
ought to be obtained easily. Sticky fly paper will do the 
work, but its effect destroys much of the good from our 
teaching kindness to animals. 

To clear rooms of flies, carbolic acid may be used as follows : heat 
a shovel or any similar article and drop thereon twenty drops of 
carbolic acid. The vapor kills the flies. 

A cheap and perfectly reliable fly-poison, one which is not dan- 
gerous to human life, is bichromate of potash in solution. Dissolve 
one dram, which can be bought at any drug store, in two ounces of 
water and add a little sugar. Put some of this solution in shallow 
dishes and distribute them about the house. 

A spoonful of formalin (or formaldehyde in water) put into a 
quarter of a pint of water and exposed in the room will be enough to 
kill all the flies. To quickly clear the room where there are many 
flies, burn pyrethrum powder in the room. This stupefies the flies, 
and they may be swept up and burned. 

[69] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Desks and chairs. The desks and chairs should be 
made as nearly comfortable as circumstances will allow. 
It is probably too much to expect that they be really fitted 
to the child, though the time for the absolute demand for 
that is slowly approaching. At any rate, if a child cannot 
reach to his desk top and cannot touch the floor with his 
feet, he may be given a board to lift his chair and a box to 
put his feet upon. Of course it is better that the chair or 
desk be really raised upon the board, but the board may be 
merely put upon the chair if the teacher has not the manual 
skill to do the work properly. These are little things, and 
they do not make the room more attractive in appearance, 
but they are aids to the health of the pupils. If a teacher 
does not know how high desk and chair should be, she may 
find out by means of two simple measurements. Seat the 
child well back on a table, with his legs hanging down and 
his arm bent so the lower arm will be horizontal and the 
upper arm held close against the side. Place a board beneath 
the feet, and measure the distance from the board to the top 
of the table for height of chair, and from the board to 
the lower side of arm for height of desk top. Call any 
fraction of an inch a whole inch in the last measurement 
— that for the desk — and subtract any fraction of an inch 
in the measurement for height of chair. 

Children should be watched for habits like dropping the 
head too low over the work, sitting on one foot, working 
with one shoulder higher than the other, laying the head 
on the desk during work, and many such things, which run 
as real epidemics through a school. The comfort of a child 
is sometimes greatly increased by a little care on the part 
of the teacher as to how the sun shines upon his work. 

[7o] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

Nervous children are often very susceptible to things like 
this, and it is worth while to look out for such children. 

Physical defects. The teacher should be constantly on 
the watch to discover physical defects and should do her 
best to get them remedied when such remedy is possible. 
It is a most excellent plan to send to parents regular 
reports containing statements of the child's health as ob- 
served by the teacher and calling attention to any physical 
troubles, such as rounded or uneven shoulders, depressed 
head, decaying teeth, adenoids, deafness, or any eye diffi- 
culties. Teachers should urge parents to have a careful 
examination, by the family physician, of children whose 
work is unsatisfactory or who give evidence of any physical 
defects. 

Compulsory medical inspection, which is making for it- 
self so firm a hold in many places, is of course what is 
needed, but there still remains much for the teacher to do 
personally. She will often find her efforts unwelcome and 
unproductive, but most parents have their children's inter- 
ests at heart, and though it must be expected that there 
will be prejudice difficult to break down in many cases, the 
response is usually promptly and gratefully given. At any 
rate the effort should be made — not once, but again and 
again till good results appear. A great deal of the inat- 
tention, stubbornness, exasperating behavior, nervousness, 
and real illness arises from eye strain or inability to hear, 
and when these physical troubles are corrected the problems 
disappear. 

Tests of eyesight. Tests of sight should be made by 
every teacher at least once a year, and oftener when there 
are indications of any trouble. Such tests are frequently 

[7i] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

required by law, but the teacher should give them not be- 
cause she is compelled to do so but because she finds in 
them a means for increasing her efficiency. These tests 
are made by means of the Snellen test types, which may 
be obtained free from the town or county superintendent 
or from the office of the state superintendent of schools. 
If one fails to secure them from these sources, they may 
be had from any optician or dealer in optical supplies, at 
a very small cost. 

These cards contain several rows of letters, each row 
differing from the rest in size. Above the rows is given 
the distance at which they should be read — as, ten feet 
for smallest, twenty for next, and so on, to perhaps fifty 
feet. The test card should be hung in a good light, at about 
the level of the child's head. He should take a position 
directly in front of the card and at the distance from it 
indicated by the number above the row of smallest letters. 
He should cover one eye, without closing it, by holding a 
card in front of it. He should then read by means of the 
other eye as many of the letters as he can, beginning with 
the largest ones. If he cannot see the largest letters, he 
should approach the card till he can. The other eye should 
be tested in the same way, but the pupil should rest a 
minute before the trial is made. Children who do not 
know the letters may be tested by using similar cards, 
containing, instead of a variety of letters, the letter E 
placed in different positions, they being required to tell 
in which direction the arms point. 

When not in use the card should be most carefully kept 
from the observation of the pupils, as children very readily 
memorize the letters, which renders the test absolutely 

[72] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

useless. Even when the card is presented only during 
the test, it is well to make very sure by using, besides 
the reading in order, a test in which a piece of cardboard 
with a small square hole cut in it is placed over the letters 
in irregular order. Each pupil should be tested without 
the others being present, so that there may be less danger 
of memorizing, and this should hold true even of those 
who have themselves been tested, because the same cards 
may be used later in making another test. 

Not being able to see a whole row of letters usually 
means nearsightedness, while miscalling certain letters in a 
line indicates astigmatism. Both troubles need correction 
by glasses, but while nearsightedness may be helped out by 
seating in a favorable position, astigmatism must depend 
upon glasses alone. A single mistake, however, may not 
indicate a trouble sufficient to need correction, and the 
teacher has to use her judgment here as elsewhere. Some- 
times the child is only careless and can read correctly if he 
looks more carefully. If there is much difference between 
the two eyes, special attention should be given to getting 
the trouble corrected, as a great amount of eye and nerve 
strain results from effort to accommodate two differing 
eyes to the same work. 

A record should be made of the result of the eye test. 
This result may be stated in the form of a fraction, whose 
numerator is the distance at which the child stands from 
the card, and the denominator the number over the smallest 
line he can read. If the pupil stands twenty feet from the 
card and can read no smaller letters than those of the row 
labeled forty feet, his record should read |$, which repre- 
sents one half normal vision. The teacher's record should 

[73] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

contain any other points regarding the child's eyes which 
may help to produce understanding of their condition. 

Notices should be sent to parents of all whose tests fall 
much below normal or whose eyes differ. The teacher 
should also notify if there is inflammation of eyes or eye- 
lids, if there is complaint of the eyes aching, if the eyes 
turn in or outward, — indicating a muscular trouble, — if the 
child holds the book very near his eyes, if he scowls or 
holds the head habitually on one side, or if he has head- 
aches or is nervous. With such a report should go always 
a recommendation that a further examination be made and 
the trouble corrected if possible. 

If parents do not wish to have the child wear glasses, 
the teacher must do her best to favor him in school. Usu- 
ally the glasses will be forthcoming if the parent is con- 
vinced that the child's work and health are suffering from 
this cause. A potent argument is the very true one that 
allowing the glasses now may mean that when the child is 
grown he may in all probability do without them. 

Hearing. Hearing tests are very necessary. The test- 
ing may be done by means of a watch or a whisper. The 
watch test would be the more reliable of the two if watches 
did not vary so much in volume of sound. If the same 
watch — a loud-ticking one — is used for all the tests, one 
may ascertain fairly well whether the hearing is normal. 

The test should be made in a large room which is as 
quiet as possible. The two ears should be tested sepa- 
rately. The child should close his eyes, and the ear not 
being tested should be plugged with cotton. The teacher 
should find out what is the greatest distance at which the 
pupil can hear the tick of the watch when held at the level 

[74] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

of the ear and on the prolongation of the line which joins 
the two ears. Several tests should be made for each ear, 
the watch being moved back and forth. It should also 
be covered, or some other means used to find if the pupil 
really hears, or only imagines he does. A loud-ticking watch 
should be heard at a distance of at least five or six feet. 
It is to be remembered that a perfectly quiet room is un- 
usual, and this test is perhaps more useful to discover a 
great lack of power to hear or differences between the two 
ears than to determine the exact distance of hearing. 

The whisper test is probably the best for general use. 
It is said that a loud whisper should be heard at sixty feet, 
a low one at about forty, but the conditions are frequently 
so poor that it is perhaps better for a teacher to set a 
standard of about twenty-five or thirty feet and judge by 
that. The preparation of eyes and ears should be as for 
the watch test. The child should be expected to repeat 
things said by the teacher, who will give him short sen- 
tences, words, or numbers. Another simple test is to place 
the pupil with his back toward the teacher, and then let 
him follow whispered directions for simple movements. 

The ordinary tests for hearing are much less reliable 
than are those for sight, but they will make the teacher 
aware of any real difficulty, and if such is found, the parent 
should be urged to have a physician's examination. Notice 
should be sent if the tests seem unusually short, and par- 
ticularly if there is a marked difference between the two 
ears. The parent should be notified also if the child shows 
other signs of deafness, like inattention, asking for repeti- 
tion, or dullness in school work. Many times the deafness 
is due to hardened earwax or catarrh or adenoids, and 

[75] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

proper treatment may correct it. Sometimes the trouble 
cannot be remedied, in which case the pupil should be 
seated near the front and encouraged to turn his head in 
the direction of the sound and to watch the lips of one 
speaking. Great consideration should be shown him. 

It behooves the teacher to find out and remedy the 
troubles in hearing for her own sake as well as the child's. 
If a child cannot hear, he learns with difficulty, is often 
misunderstood, and seems either careless or stubborn — 
sometimes really becoming so. If he does not hear what 
is going on and is not underwitted, he seeks some form 
of entertainment and so becomes a disturber of the peace, 
nor can he be rightfully blamed for doing so. 

Adenoids. If a teacher finds in her school great, over- 
grown children, dull, rude, clownish, causing constant 
trouble, she should be on the lookout for adenoids, for nine 
out of every ten of such children have these drawbacks to 
health, good behavior, and progress. If she finds others 
nervous, anaemic, subject to colds, talking thickly, with 
narrow jaw and irregular, crowded teeth, and unable to 
breathe except through the mouth, she may expect to find 
the same trouble. Much of the deafness, also, comes from 
this source, although it is difficult to trace the deafness to 
its cause, since the child who has adenoids is much deafer 
at some times than at others. 

Teachers who find this menace to a child's development 
and get it remedied will perform a saving service of more 
value to the pupil than the giving of many lessons. Par- 
ents are getting aroused to the importance of looking after 
adenoids, but there is still much more to be accomplished. 
Many cases have been known in which the insistence of 

[76] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 



the child himself was necessary to spur the parents to 
action, but such insistence often comes too late, as before 
the child is old enough to realize his own needs the jaw 
may be permanently deformed, the health permanently 
injured, and the mouth-breathing habit so fixed as to be 
almost impossible of correction. 

Decayed teeth. Often parents are entirely unaware that 
decayed teeth will bring more dangers to their child's 
health than will most of the greatly dreaded contagious 
diseases. Insufficiently masticated food brings on digestive 
disturbances that will 
in turn cause nervous- 
ness, eye troubles, and 
other bodily disorders. 
Decaying teeth, with 
the accompanying bac- 
teria and the fruitful 
field for a reception 
of germs from outside 
sources, are really re- 
sponsible for many of 
the contagious diseases. Children with poor teeth and the 
physical troubles incident to them are often behind in their 
studies. Teachers should see that parents are informed 
of all these things. 

Drinking cup. The common drinking cup is a well- 
known source of disease, but there are schools where the 
pail and long-handled dipper still prevail. The individual 
cup is not greatly better, for it is seldom perfectly clean. 
The best way would be for the children to have light tin 
cups which could be carried back and forth easily and 

[77 1 




Plan for Drinking Cup 



Fold a 6- or 8- inch square on the diagonal AB ; 

then fold A to A; fold B to B ; fold the corner 

C toward front, on line BA ; fold remaining 

corner toward back, on same line 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

which should take frequent journeys home in addition to 
frequent school baths. Too great drinking at school should 
be discouraged, till it can be done with perfect safety. The 
drinking fountain solves the difficulty for schools where 
there is running water, but the problem of the rural school 
is yet unsolved. The paper drinking cups are still too ex- 
pensive to be used generally in such places, though chil- 
dren may be taught to fold cups for themselves. Care 
should be taken that fingers and papers are clean. 

Dry sweeping. Dry sweeping and dusting are to blame 
for the spread of much disease. Wet paper or sawdust 
should be used for sweeping the schoolroom when nothing 
better is to be obtained, and the dusting should be done 
with a damp cloth. 

Individual pencils. Pencils should not be used inter- 
changeably. Each should be marked with the child's name. 
They may be stuck upright through holes that have been 
punched in a cardboard box, or they may be thrust through 
an elastic that has been passed in and out through slits 
cut in a sheet of pasteboard, each place being marked. 
They should be arranged in the order in which the chil- 
dren sit, as an aid to distribution. 

Lice and itch. Few teachers will be fortunate enough 
to go through many years without some experience with 
lice and itch. These are rather delicate matters, but they 
have to be encountered, and " forewarned is forearmed." 
The child whose hair is infected should be sent home 
with a note telling what remedies to try. A hair bath in 
kerosene is most effective. Alcohol will serve. Quassia, 
steeped, furnishes a safe and clean remedy. Vaseline, well 
rubbed in and allowed to stay twenty-four hours, will do 

[78] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

the work. These may not be effective with one applica- 
tion. They sometimes have to be employed two or three 
times with twenty-four hours between. This is in order to 
kill the eggs, or nits. The nits themselves may be re- 
moved by combing with a fine-toothed comb which has 
been dipped in vinegar or alcohol. If sending home does 
not accomplish the purpose, as will be true in some locali- 
ties, the teacher may roll up her sleeves and, detaining the 
child after the rest, apply the kerosene, alcohol, or quassia, 
herself. 

Sulphur mixed with lard or vaseline, well rubbed in, for 
three or four applications, once each day, will probably stop 
the itch if it is not too advanced. It manifests itself usually 
in an eruption that looks like water blisters, or in some 
stages, like chapped hands. It appears between the fingers, 
in the armpits, at the bend of wrists and elbows, along the 
spine. It is accompanied by intense itching. A teacher is 
herself continuously exposed to it, as in many localities 
it is not infrequent. The public common towel is a most 
fruitful source of contagion. The paper towels are excellent 
for schools and cost very little. If the teacher washes her 
hands habitually, or at the completion of her school duties, 
with sulphur soap, she is usually safe, personally. All 
books used by children found with this trouble should be 
laid aside till they can be fumigated. 

Small ailments. Sulpho-napthol, creolin, and peroxide 
of hydrogen will help in keeping small wounds from being 
troublesome. Teachers should be like mothers regarding 
such comfort destroyers as splinters and little wounds. For 
removal of a splinter a needle should be heated red-hot 
and then cooled, or at any rate it should be wiped clean 

[79] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

before using. Wiping the needle does not disinfect it, of 
course, but it may do a little toward reducing the deadly 
effects that might result, and sometimes neither boiling 
water nor means for heating the needle may be at hand. 
The wounds should be washed in one of the antiseptics 
named, before bandaging. Any slight wound may be 
washed clean with clear warm water into which has been 
poured a little creolin or sulpho-napthol, and then wrapped 
with a clean, soft bandage, after which little trouble need 
be feared. Sometimes it may be covered with cotton and 
then a light coating of collodion put over it. It is not well, 
usually, to apply the collodion directly. Peroxide is good 
for a scratch or cut in which pus is forming. Peppermint 
is excellent for toothache or may be administered upon 
loaf sugar for a pain in the stomach. Camphor may be 
inhaled when one is faint. 

Nosebleed is of frequent occurrence. The circulation 
should be cooled by applying ice or cold water to the back 
of the neck and bridge of the nose. Sopping the nostrils 
washes away the clot as soon as formed, so a dry handker- 
chief should be held tightly to the nose. A bit of paper put 
between the upper lip and the gum will often help to stop 
the flow. If the bleeding is long continued, a plug of cotton 
should be inserted into the nostril, but a bit of strong thread 
should be attached, that the plug may be easily removed. 
The head should not be bent over a basin during the bleed- 
ing, nor over a desk directly after the bleeding stops. 

It is not usually wise for a teacher to dose a child much 
internally, for fear of mismanagement and of dissatisfaction 
at home, but it is well to keep a small bottle of aromatic 
spirits of ammonia and give a half teaspoonful in a little 

[So] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

water to a fainting child. Once in a while it is necessary 
to repeat after thirty or forty minutes. In cases where 
children have a long distance to come to school, something 
has sometimes to be done immediately by the teacher, and 
the proposed remedies are perfectly safe. 

Contagious diseases. If a child appears to the teacher to 
have a contagious disease, he should be sent home. A note 
should go with him, telling what the teacher thinks may be 
the matter and asking that he be kept at home till it is sure 
that he is all right. Courteously worded, this ought to pro- 
duce no trouble. The teacher should not wait till night, 
or even a few hours, to make sure ; she should not let 
consideration for the parent, or things of that sort, deter 
her. She is the guardian of the health of all the school, 
and consideration for all must outweigh consideration for 
one. The law gives her the right to send them home on 
the merest suspicion and to refuse to receive them back 
till satisfied of the safety of so doing. 

If a contagious disease really breaks out in her school, 
a teacher should not go into a panic or in any way show 
fear. She must keep her head, no matter how she feels, 
and show herself worthy of her office. She must notify her 
superintendent at once. If she fails to reach him, she 
should turn to the board of health. She must not only see 
that those exposed to the disorder remain away from school 
but she must keep careful watch over the others to detect 
further trouble. She must reassure parents and children 
and give no exaggerated accounts. She must see that the 
books and pencils of the infected child are looked after till 
they are properly disinfected or destroyed. If a fumigation 
is decided upon, — and the teacher should urge it rather 

[81] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

than frown upon it, — she should stand books upon end 
partially opened, open drawers and boxes, and do any other 
necessary preparation. It is very improbable that she will, 
herself, take the disease by so doing, and even if she does, 
it is only one of the risks that she assumes when agreeing 
to teach. 

Instruction in hygiene. Care for the physical comfort 
of the school may well include direct instruction regard- 
ing health. Physiology and hygiene claim their share in 
the program, but hygiene is what is most needed, physi- 
ology enough being given to make one appreciate the 
hygiene part. Little health talks may be taken in connec- 
tion with the opening exercises, in the nature-study periods, 
or wherever they fit in. 

The children should be awakened to their need of fresh 
air and to the habit of obtaining it out of doors, in their 
sleeping rooms, and throughout the houses. The need of 
airing clothes should be impressed. They should be taught 
the value of air in producing health, and that cold air and 
fresh air are not identical. Many suggestions may be 
made in a general way as to kind of food, ways of cook- 
ing it, and the dangers of too much candy, of breakfasts that 
are only doughnuts and coffee, of eating at irregular inter- 
vals. The need of going to bed early and in the proper 
place, instead of lying down anywhere and being put to bed 
later on, should be suggested. The value of exercise, and 
the fact that both work and play may furnish it and that 
it should be accompanied by a light heart, should be spoken 
of. The later textbooks treat nearly all topics in a practical 
way, with direct application to the needs of the child, and 
they may serve as a guide to the teacher. It is well to 

[82] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

impress upon the child that all these things, including 
care of hair, teeth, nails, and all parts of the body, make 
a great difference in our standing in the world. 

Smoking and other bad habits. Temperance, not only 
with reference to alcohol but to all things, should form 
a part of the instruction. Smoking should be well ex- 
pounded. The child should see moral and physical results. 
He should realize that at the start it produces a feeling of 
shame, then an attempt to conceal which frequently brings 
a lie. The effect of the tobacco finally brings about a de- 
terioration, and the child does not become the man he 
ought. Emphasis should be laid upon its effects on grow- 
ing boys as wholly bad ; this is a matter beyond dispute, 
even if its effects upon the man be set aside. That is not 
what immediately concerns the child. 

Worse than smoking and use of alcohol, so far as the 
children are concerned, are certain physical habits of abuse, 
which the teacher should watch for and fight with all the 
power and tact that in her lie. Children should be taught 
generally that their bodies are sacred and that no part 
should be abused. Little children fall into many bad ways 
and hand them on to younger children. Before they are 
old enough to realize, ruinous habits are established. It is 
a matter for careful approach, but instruction as needed 
should be given. 

Worry and overwork. Children often really worry over 
school work. They should be kept from this as much as 
possible. As has been said, too much home study should 
not be assigned to young children. They will be far better 
physically, more ready to work in school, if their out-of- 
school hours are mainly free. If home work is assigned to 

[»3l 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

the larger children, it should be reading, spelling, nature 
observation, or something not calling for the application 
and thought that arithmetic and grammar demand. 

Physical exercises. Something may be attained for the 
present comfort of the child and for his future health, 
through the physical exercises of the school. These exer- 
cises serve the purpose of rest mainly, and they should be 
taken at any time when the appearance of the children 
indicates lassitude or nervous strain. They may be very 
simple, just the exercises that call for the stretching and 
relaxing of various muscles. For formal work one may 
make use of such exercises as are suggested in Bancroft's 
" School Freehand Gymnastics," but the teacher should 
never attempt such elaborate ones that she feels called 
upon to read the commands to the school directly from 
the book. In rural schools and with little children less 
formal exercises are surely much better. They may some- 
times take the form of games. Playing a gymnastic 
story, like those suggested in " Gymnastic Stories and 
Plays," always arouses interest. In these, for example, 
the children play they are trees in a storm and go through 
all the motions required for the blowing of the wind 
(breathing), the shaking of leaves (fingers) and limbs 
(arms), and the bending of the trunk. A teacher who 
does not have the book can easily imagine other exercises 
springing out of this idea. Sometimes sufficient exercise 
for the time may be furnished by playing jack-in-the-box, 
by playing row or pump, by standing up and stretching 
and yawning, by running around the room. The exercises 
should come often to be of value and, coming often, need 
continue only for a minute. The introduction of the 

[84] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

folk dances in schools where it is practicable is a forward 
movement, as these furnish exercise for all parts of the 
body and are productive of grace and freedom from self- 
consciousness, while they bring keen enjoyment to the 
children. In nearly all schools adaptations of these dances 
may be used. Educational papers suggest much helpful 
work, with the rhythmic idea emphasized. In all schools 
free calisthenics should be given at regular times, once 
or twice a day. 

Breathing exercises. Accompanying exercises already 
suggested, must go some that strengthen and train the 
voice. Breathing exercises and speaking the various vowel 
and consonant sounds at various pitches and with different 
force and rate will help in producing flexibility of the vocal 
organs, in breaking up bad habits of breathing and speak- 
ing, and in many such ways. Ives's " Illustrated Phonics " 
gives many helpful ideas in this connection. 

Sense training an indirect aid. One may suffer physical 
discomfort through defective sense organs, as when one 
experiences headaches and nervousness because of eye 
strain. Lack of knowledge and loss of pleasure may come 
also through lack of training of the senses, so sense train- 
ing may be touched upon in connection with physical 
development. Failure to secure proper sense impressions 
may arise often through the mind's failure to notice and 
interpret properly what the sense organs report, so drill in 
sense training should occur frequently in school. Exercises 
which help in quickening all the senses are easily found. 
To train the ear, exercises may be given in judging by 
hearing alone what objects were touched, whether the chil- 
dren walked, ran, hopped, or jumped, who spoke, who sang, 

[85] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

where they were when they sang, what notes were sung. 
Recognizing objects or people by feeling, finding one's way 
to the seat by the sense of touch, and other exercises of this 
kind are good for the touch sense. Telling by smell vari- 
ous flowers, fruits, perfumes, spices ; recognizing numerous 
objects by taste ; looking at a collection of objects for an 
instant and naming as many as possible; telling what 
colors were changed, what children changed position, and 
like exercises may be used to the delight and instruction 
of the school. 

The child's physical well-being is certainly of as great 
importance as his mental development, but it is interesting 
to observe that usually the two things go hand in hand. 



REFERENCES 

Allen. Civics and Health. Ginn and Company. 

Bancroft. Games for Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium. 

The Macmillan Company. 
Bancroft. School Freehand Gymnastics. D. C. Heath & Co. 
Burchenal. Folk Dances and Singing Games. G. Schirmer. 
Cary. Plays and Games for Schools. Democrat Printing Company. 
Crawford. Dramatic Games and Dances for Little Children. The 

A. S. Barnes Company. 
Crampton. The Folk Dance Book. The A. S. Barnes Company. 
Curtis. Play and Recreation for the Open Country. Ginn and 

Company. 
Hofer. Popular Folk Games and Dances. A. Flanagan Company. 
Ives. Illustrated Phonics. Longmans, Green, & Co. 
Johnson. Education by Plays and Games. Ginn and Company. 
Kastman and Kohler. Swedish Song Games. Ginn and Company. 
Montessori. The Montessori Method. Frederick A. Stokes 

Company. 

[86] 



THE PHYSICAL COMFORT OF THE CHILD 

Newton. Graded Games and Rhythmic Exercises. The A. S. Barnes 

Company, New York. 
Stoneroad. Gymnastic Stories and Plays. D. C. Heath & Co., 

Boston. 
Fiber Toweling. Inlargerolls. A. P.W. Paper Company, Albany, N.Y. 
Fiber Towels. Holden Book Cover Company, Springfield, Mass. 
Tissue Towels. J. L. Hammett Company, Boston. 



[87] 



CHAPTER VIII 

MORNING EXERCISES 

Many things may be included under the head of Morn- 
ing Exercises. They furnish a place for a large amount 
of general work that cannot be put elsewhere. In such 
schools as give the child long periods of work between 
his recitations, suggestions may be made during these 
exercises that may be carried out independently by him. 
Because of the elasticity regarding the subjects taken, and 
because here the teacher works with her whole school, it 
is well to make the opening-exercise period rather longer 
than is usually allowed. Instead of three or five minutes, 
fifteen or twenty should be planned ; but since this is a 
good working time, care should be taken that it is not 
wasted. This time properly used may serve as an impetus 
and inspiration for the whole day. 

Subjects : Scripture. The work should include devo- 
tional exercises proper. These have been referred to else- 
where. There should always be included a hymn, a Bible 
selection, and the Lord's Prayer, unless, as has been pre- 
viously said, the school use of Scripture is forbidden. The 
Bible selection should be a psalm or other suitable Scrip- 
ture which the children have learned and repeat with the 
teacher. The choice should be made with care, since not 
all parts of the Bible are well suited to school repetition. 
As soon as one selection has been learned a new one 

[88] 



MORNING EXERCISES 

should be begun, and all known ones should be repeated 
in alternation with each other. The teaching of the new 
may occupy a short part of each opening-exercise period. 
Unless discussion of the Bible is not allowable or desirable, 
the selections should be talked over with a view to getting 
the right understanding and feeling^ though nothing de- 
nominational should be introduced. If this method of re- 
viewing the old and adding new should be kept up, the 
children at the end of a common-school course would have 
quite a fund of most helpful Scripture assimilated and 
made dear. 

Hymns. The hymns should be those suited to children, 
and may include some of our standard hymns together 
with certain ones that are particularly fitted to the under- 
standing and needs of young children. The teaching of 
new hymns may form a part of the morning-exercise work, 
or it may be done in the music periods. 

Devotional poems. It is well to add to the regular de- 
votional exercises what we might call a devotional poem, 
which may be said over and over again. Two or three of 
such poems may alternate with each other through a year, 
or one alone might serve. For this one needs such poems 
as " Consider," "A Child's Thought of God," " Whichever 
Way the Wind Doth Blow," or any like selection contain- 
ing a distinct direction of thought toward the love of God 
and his care for us or toward our duties. 

Other features. The features mentioned may occur 
morning after morning. In addition there may be given 
whatever the needs of the day demand. Teaching of new 
songs, poems, or psalms ; singing old songs or saying old 
poems ; talking of the various phases of nature that bring 

[39] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

themselves to the notice of the child ; current events ; dis- 
cussion of some particular man or thing that has been 
assigned to find out about ; talks meant for ethical training ; 
salutes to the flag, or other patriotic work — all these form 
a legitimate part of the morning exercises. The teacher 
and children get acquainted at this time. Interesting open- 
ing exercises decrease tardiness. The keynote for the 
day may be struck here, and the time is an exceedingly 
important one. 

Current events. Skill is necessary in the discussion of 
current events. The children need to be trained to real 
discrimination as to what is worth noticing in the world's 
happenings. They may be guided from their natural choice 
of murders and all unholy terrors that appeal to the imagi- 
nation toward the choice of events which mark the march 
of the world in art, science, morals — all worth-while topics. 
It is interesting to watch their growth in these lines. A 
teacher should hesitate to direct the attention of children 
to the daily newspapers, which are most pernicious in 
their influence upon unformed minds. The current events 
should be gathered from magazines like the Outlook, the 
World's Work, or the Review of Reviews. A little paper 
called Current Events is in use in many schools and 
serves admirably. 

Ethical Training 

Moral training, since it may be reached directly in 
connection with the morning exercises, is treated in this 
chapter ; but since it is of so great importance and needs 
large attention at other times, it may well have separate 
consideration. 

[9o] 



MORNING EXERCISES 

Indirect instruction. Ethical instruction is of two kinds, 
direct and indirect. The indirect instruction must go on 
all the time. Whenever occasion serves, a blow should be 
struck for decency and uprightness. Opportunities will 
come in connection with all subjects, and no single chance 
to uplift should be neglected. Occasions may be made as 
if incidentally ; a bit of biography or a daily happening may 
be introduced and so do its service. Effort must be made 
in connection with all school subjects to develop ideas of 
accuracy, industry, honesty, and the like, into ideals and 
to help these ideals to grow into habits. 

Careful supervision. Watchfulness on the part of the 
teacher may prevent undesirable habits. Occasions for 
dishonesty, untruthfulness, and the like, may be removed. 
Too great temptations should not be permitted while the 
character is still unformed. Fear is at the bottom of many 
lies. Too strong incentives to ambition may produce cheat- 
ing, and attractive trifles left in a child's way are a direct 
temptation to theft. Oversight of the wastebasket, sup- 
pression of note writing, supervision of children at noon 
and recess, opening of lines of thought and interest in 
all sorts of legitimate ways, may save many a child from 
future sin and the consequences thereof. When to all this 
is added the good example of the teacher, much more may 
be accomplished. 

Direct instruction. Besides these things, direct instruc- 
tion is greatly needed. The work should not be left to 
suggestion or chance. To drill day after day on arithmetic 
and leave our moral education to a chance hit here and 
there is poor judgment. Children need direct and forceful 
teaching regarding politeness, cleanliness, purity in speech 

[91] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

and thought and deed, work, punctuality, kindness, honesty, 
truthfulness, temperance, and kindred subjects. Such in- 
struction may be given in connection with opening exer- 
cises or at some special time set apart for the purpose, 
but somewhere it certainly should be given. 

There has been a prevalent notion that children must 
never be preached to, and that all that is necessary is a 
careful watching of habits. Along with this has gone a 
serene trust that all would be well in the future, which 
has somehow produced a slipping of responsibility greater 
than has occurred in any other place in child training. In- 
deed, the habits themselves have been comparatively little 
watched. Teachers and mothers have been almost crimi- 
nally careless in regard to this, too prone to pass in silence 
conditions they know to be wrong. 

Character is dependent upon both habits and ideals, and 
knowledge should stand as the foundation of both. Before 
a child's habits are so fixed that they become difficult of 
change he should have instruction so that he may know 
what he ought and ought not to do. He should also be 
given direct teaching, in order that he may have a proper 
ideal, not that furnished him by some slightly older child. 

A third-grade pupil from an excellent family, who 
stated in an ethical talk that children should not do certain 
disorderly things while the teacher was out of the room, 
gave as his only reason that the teacher might come in 
and catch them. Another, who said it was wrong to copy 
his neighbor's paper, saw no cause for refraining except 
the fact that the paper might not be right. These cases 
show the difficulties under which teachers must work to train 
children to become citizens having worthy moral standards. 

[92] 



MORNING EXERCISES 

The conditions are not different, nor is the task harder 
than in other lines of our work, though the accomplishing 
of our aims is more essential. Why should we expect to 
have to teach the children reading, language, music, and 
work in every other line, and expect them to be born with 
a well-developed moral nature. 

There are many ways of conducting the lesson. A good 
way is to select a topic and work upon it for several days, 
it being made the theme or guide for conduct. Children 
will be interested in finding out why the habits are neces- 
sary ; what, for example, are the advantages of punctuality, 
of politeness, or of work. They may give their opinions 
as to how honest or truthful one needs to be. Stories 
may be told of imaginary happenings and the children be 
urged to argue on the side they really believe to be right. 
Behavior on the streets or in public places forms an excel- 
lent topic. Children are often little savages because they 
do not think about it, not because they want to attract 
attention or be bad. 

The topics regarding cleanliness, and purity of speech, 
thought, and action, need careful handling, but they open 
a field for work that will yield to none in its need and, if 
properly approached, in its results. In no line do children 
need training more. The next decade will witness a marked 
change and progress toward freedom of discussion and 
careful teaching in lines now wholly overlooked or touched 
upon gingerly or with apprehension. With little children 
the teaching is easy, with older ones it may have to be 
given as private instruction or to girls and boys in sepa- 
rate classes. There is, of course, great opposition to such 
teaching in some quarters, but the trend of opinion is very 

[93] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

strongly in favor of such work. To the argument that 
unskilled teachers cannot handle it, the reply seems to be 
that that has never been a reason for omitting the teach- 
ing of any other needed subject. The teachers should not 
remain untrained and unfit. They should learn in our 
normal schools, and in training classes in colleges, and 
even in high schools, how to teach a subject that is begin- 
ning to be so clamorously insisted upon as necessary. 

Every school should have its time for giving direct 
moral lessons. The seed may be sown during this lesson 
time, and then the teacher should see that proper soil for 
its growth is furnished throughout the school day. No 
child should be able to say with truth, as an excuse for 
any bad habit, that he did not know it was wrong, and 
no teacher should, through neglect in giving such lessons, 
put herself in a place where she must feel herself really 
responsible for the wrongdoing of a child who has been 
under her charge. 

REFERENCES 

Brownlee. System of Child Training. H olden Company, Spring- 
field, Mass. 

Brownlee. Character Building in Schools. Houghton Mifflin 
Company. 

Current Events. A weekly paper. Special rates for schools. Spring- 
field (Mass.) or Chicago. 

Moral Training in the Public Schools. Ginn and Company. 



[94] 



CHAPTER IX 

ARITHMETIC 

Importance. This subject has been overemphasized in 
the schools for many years. It is a valuable subject prac- 
tically, yet its practical need has been greatly overesti- 
mated. For use in life, there is needed a quick and active 
power to employ the four fundamental processes with 
whole numbers and with decimal and common fractions 
including mixed numbers, the simpler work in mensura- 
tion and denominate numbers, percentage with its common 
applications taken in a practical and simple way. Such 
arithmetical work as is given because of its use in algebra 
or physics should be saved to be taught in connection 
with those subjects, and common-school work should be 
confined wholly to the things directly used in the life of 
an ordinary person. Arithmetic is of great use as a means 
of training, but the training can be given in connection 
with the work that is really needed as well as with the 
more difficult and unnecessary. Moreover, other subjects 
which are as interesting and valuable will furnish equally 
good training. Arithmetic should not receive from the 
pupils more time daily than that allowed to geography, 
history, language, or most other subjects. 

Much oral and practical work should be taken, with 
analysis given simply and in the child's own words so long 
as they express the idea correctly. Modern arithmetics deal 

[95] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

much with mental work, and though the child of to-day is 
unskilled in arithmetical gymnastics, he can perform many 
hard problems easily, without the use of pencil and paper. 
Makers of books are slowly cutting out the absurd and sub- 
stituting really practical work, yet the teacher has still to 
winnow considerably from what is left. 

Character of first-grade arithmetic. Little, if any, abstract 
arithmetic should be given in the first year. The children 
at this age are fond of counting, and a great deal of it may 
be taken, counting by ones, twos, fives, and tens. The 
counting should be done with objects, and many games 
and devices may be employed — such as counting the 
objects in the room, the desks, chairs, pupils present and 
absent, blocks, sticks, pegs, or balls. The children may 
play games that call for counting, like the one named 
"chickens," in which the teacher scatters corn or small 
objects on a table and the children get all they can, count- 
ing afterwards to see how they stand. 

Other first-grade work which leads to a knowledge of 
number may consist of observation and experiment with 
measuring things and comparing them — lines, surfaces, 
solids, pints, quarts, pecks, bushels, ounces, pounds. The 
children may estimate, then verify, in this way obtaining 
a concrete knowledge of small numbers. This should 
never be made abstract in the first year. The play idea 
may prevail in this work. Guessing the dimensions of 
objects in the room and then measuring them, drawing 
pictures of them, finding them by description, naming 
them through the sense of feeling, building, — as making 
a seven-inch measure or an eight-inch solid in as many 
ways as possible, — telling what will be left if one measure 

[96] 



ARITHMETIC 

be taken from another, recognizing and comparing dry 
and liquid measures, with many like exercises, furnish 
pleasure for the child and leave him at the end of the 
year with a perceptive knowledge that makes the regular 
number work of the second year pleasant and easy. 

In addition to this he may do considerable work in the 
way of arranging pegs, or the little kindergarten tablets 
called lentils, or splints upon his desk in response to written 
or spoken dictation. The objects representing the answer 
may be included in the lesson after the arranging becomes 
easy, the answer being determined by counting, but no 
attempt should be made to have the work memorized 
abstractly. The object of first-year work, when any is 
taken, should always be the acquiring of concrete ideas 
for later use. 

Sometimes present needs may serve to create a number 
interest and to bring about considerable in the way of a 
knowledge of numbers. Games, gardening, and construc- 
tion work of various kinds in which the child is interested, 
may demand for their accomplishment much arithmetical 
work. The pupil, eager to obtain certain results, picks up 
many number facts and finds learning of combinations easy. 
Often he is unaware of what he is really accomplishing. 
The teacher should always use means like these to aid in 
the teaching. 

Later number work for primary grades. The regular 
number work during the rest of the early grades aims 
particularly to make the child familiar with the common 
processes with whole numbers. Here he should still feel 
the play element, and he should be trained to see relations 
and to use his judgment as much as possible. The first 

[97] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

secret of good work is to have the pupil see the thing con- 
cretely till he is sure it is so, then drill on it abstractly till 
the process becomes mechanical. If either the concrete 
or the abstract is omitted, the work is faulty. It is often 
found wise to give the child concrete material — splints, 
pegs, or other convenient objects — for use at his desk in 
working out his exercises and then make the greater part 
of his class work abstract, though this distribution of work 
is not essential. The main thing is to see that both are 
given. It is not wise to let the child count his fingers nor 
make little marks for use in working, as these are so 
ever-present and easy that the temptation is great not to 
dispense with them at the proper time. High- and normal- 
school students are to be found who still do rather simple 
addition and subtraction by counting, with or without use 
of the fingers. 

All later work must depend upon a knowledge of the 
number combinations to twenty, so these should be taught 
with the utmost care. The pupil, after a concrete presenta- 
tion in class, should do much work by himself, with and 
without objects, and should also have much class drill. In 
class he should be required to show the facts with objects, 
then to pass gradually from the concrete work with objects 
present to the concrete with objects absent, and from that 
to the abstract. He sees that 8 blocks and 7 blocks make 
1 5 blocks, then he thinks 8 blocks and 7 blocks in response 
to some such question as, " If I give you 8 blocks and you 
take 7 blocks more, how many will you have ? " and finally 
he is expected to give a quick response to the question 
" 8 and 7 are how many ? " When this latter stage is 
reached he should be required to answer promptly and 

[98] 



ARITHMETIC 

without counting. The teacher should not be satisfied till 
this result is reached ; till all addition, subtraction, multi- 
plication, and division are perfectly mechanical. 

Multiplication tables need many drills. Modern work 
makes more of the miscellaneous drill with multiplication 
combinations and of the relation to counting and adding 
than of the rote repetition, but there can be no harm in 
" saying the tables," though, of course, the work should 
not end here. The tables should be presented through 
counting — the numeral frame being the best means — 
and through arrangement of objects. There are many 
objects easily available for desk work here, such as pegs 
or sticks. The little wooden tablets called lentils, previ- 
ously referred to, are very good for the purpose, as they 
are so small that a little box will contain all a pupil needs. 
Kernels of corn may serve instead. Many teachers use 
effectively small pictures showing the required number of 
objects. If such pictures, exactly alike, be pasted upon a 
strip of muslin, the pupil may fold over as many as he 
wishes to deal with and then count for his result ; for 
example, twelve little pictures about an inch square, each 
containing three apples, to be used in learning the table 
of threes. For class work one may use a chart containing 
pictures of objects, or the purpose may be served by using 
little circles drawn upon the board. These are quickly made, 
do not tire the eyes as do lines or squares close together, 
and may be easily erased and drawn again as necessary, or 
all but the desired number of rows may be covered. 

The child should be shown particularly the theory under- 
lying addition and subtraction by endings, as, 7 + 4 = n, 
17 + 4 = 21, 37 + 4 = 41; 13-8=5, 23-8=15, 

[99] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

33 — 8 = 25. Splints — common toothpicks — furnish 
the best means for objective work here, as they occupy 
little space and can be easily arranged in bundles of ten. 
This work, like the multiplication tables, calls for inter- 
minable drill, but, like the tables and the combinations to 
twenty, is of great importance. Children should also be 
taught many little helps to work, like the fact that to add 
9 one may add 10 and subtract 1 or call the tens one 
greater and the units one less. Children are greatly inter- 
ested in such relations and can understand them early if 
their attention is called to them, so this is the time to fix 
many ways of making things easier. 

The processes with whole numbers, once introduced, 
should be drilled upon without intermission. Such drill 
occupies but a short time daily and prevents the subject 
from needing to be taught anew from time to time. Per- 
fection should be aimed at, but not expected too early. 
Much care is needed to furnish such variety for these 
ever-present drills that the children find them attractive 
and give the attention needed to get them well in mind. 
Games should be played at school and recommended for 
home. Class time, recess, and noon will furnish an oppor- 
tunity. Bean-bag games, ringtoss, dominoes, parchesi, 
flinch, backgammon, are good for improving the number 
sense. Many class games may be used. The teacher or a 
pupil may say, " I am thinking of a multiplication whose 
answer is 72." Another pupil asks, " Is it 9 times 8 ? " or 
" Is it 12 times 6 ? " The teacher says, l< I am thinking 
of something about 11 and 3." The pupil asks, "Is the 
answer 14, 33, 8 ?" Hull gull is a good game. In this 
the child holds a number of small objects concealed in his 

[100] 



ARITHMETIC 

hand. His neighbor guesses the number. If right, the 
guesser gets the objects ; if wrong, he gives the other 
player the difference between his answer and the correct 
one. For class work many devices should be employed. 
It makes a decided difference in the interest of most chil- 
dren whether the lesson goes along without diversion or 
change, or to the accompaniment of a pleasant and harm- 
less fiction, during which he imagines that he is picking 
grapes, making balloon ascensions, blowing soap bubbles, 
fishing, or playing tag. 

Playing store. Playing store is one of the best of devices. 
It may be carried to almost any extent. Using liquid, dry, 
and linear measures, much buying and selling may be done 
in class. Care should be taken to call for mathematical 
skill. We may play store without it, but it is to be remem- 
bered that our object is to develop it. If we buy four gal- 
lons of anything and have it measured in a quart or pint, 
the child learns the relation between the measures. If toy 
money is used, the gain from the play is still greater. One 
may have the real objects or their imitation, pictures on 
the board, or even cards containing prices, and do a brisk 
business. The work is capable of great expansion and 
variety. Children learn to make change rapidly. In some 
schools a permanent store has been organized by means 
of a big box and some shelves, and trade has gone on 
steadily at recesses and between schools, imitation articles 
accumulating readily. 

Work above the fifth year. By the end of the fifth 
year the children should be letter perfect in all addition, 
subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers. 
They should of course know simple work in denominate 

[101] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

numbers and mensuration and have some acquaintance 
with fractions, but skill in dealing with whole numbers 
should be the aim in the early grades. In the sixth and 
seventh grades they should continue drills with whole num- 
bers and become equally proficient with common and deci- 
mal fractions, and the work in denominate numbers should 
be enlarged, leaving the eighth year for percentage with 
its applications. If there is a ninth grade, it may be used 
for review. In schools in which many children drop out 
early, some work in percentage needs to be taken sooner, 
and in places where only eight grades precede the high 
school, if the age of entering is greater, the work may be 
taken more rapidly in the lower classes. No harm and 
much good results from taking the fundamental processes 
with whole numbers more slowly than was our former 
custom, and the pruning of unnecessary work which used 
to draw greatly upon the time and energy of the pupils 
has made such a course easily possible. 

The child should be the master of his work in fractions, 
but that given should be confined to small numbers, such 
as he will usually have to deal with out of school. Many 
drills should be given, and fundamental ideas well rubbed 
in. For example, he should be made to understand per- 
fectly multiplication and division by moving of decimal 
points, and the effect of multiplying or dividing either or 
both of dividend and divisor, and of numerator and denom- 
inator. He should be taught easy ways of doing work with 
fractions. Many children reduce mixed numbers to im- 
proper fractions to add, subtract, or multiply them, using 
hours of time in this way. The child should be made to 
see the relations existing between the different divisions 

[102] 



ARITHMETIC 

of his work in arithmetic and not allowed to think that 
every time he takes a new step he is embarking upon an 
unknown sea, without chart or compass. 

Use of class time. Much time is wasted in class by wait- 
ing while children work at board. If there is to be board 
work, the class work should be divided, all of a division 
being given the same work. After a proper time all should 
be seated and give attention to explanations. It is a bad 
outlay of time to keep ten or twelve children waiting while 
one finishes an example. It is usually better to spend class 
time in analysis of questions or development of new work, 
such board work as is done in class being performed by 
the teacher under the direction of the class. The more 
difficult work should generally be taken up in advance, 
but the children should of course have independent prac- 
tice in doing examples that have not been taken. This 
class work gives the teacher an opportunity to drill on best 
ways of going about things, such as finding the cost of one 
thing before that of the given number of things, or noticing 
just what is given and what required, or getting reasonable 
answers. All such things children need to have called to 
their attention repeatedly, for many of them they would 
never think out for themselves. 

Need of independent work. The child needa to be trained 
to independent thinking, so even in school the teacher 
should seldom do an example for him, but should help him 
to see how to do it by questions or through giving him a 
simpler one to do that involves the same principle. For 
this same reason arithmetic is better done at school, since 
it is usually the relatives of a child who are receiving 
arithmetical training if much work is done at home. 

[103] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Need of good judgment on the part of the teacher. In 

no place in connection with her school work does a teacher 
need to call upon her common sense more than in the 
arithmetic. The book should be winnowed and such parts 
as are useless or unreasonable omitted. Puzzles should be 
passed by, and emphasis put upon such work as the teacher 
knows to be valuable, leaving out that of doubtful impor- 
tance. All new processes and principles should be intro- 
duced by means of small numbers. All rules should be 
got at by giving individual concrete illustrations, then let- 
ting the child draw the general rule from this, stating it in 
his own words. This wording being corrected or bettered, 
he may learn the general truth so that he can state it easily. 
He should then have abundant practice in its application 
to particular, reasonable, miscellaneous cases. 

A few of many good drills to arouse interest in class. 
Wheels of various kinds, often made with colored crayons, 
around which the children may gallop on a pony or race 
with bicycle, automobile, or airship. 

Steps, ladders, targets, railway tracks, balloons, flags, 
soap bubbles, fish ponds, Christmas trees, and like devices. 

Work for speed tests, half the class at board, half 

working on paper. Scores should be kept. 

Modifications of this drill : 

+ 8 



9 
x 6 



Columns for quick addition. 
Exercises like those given below : 

9 x ? = 45 
? x 6 = 42 
8x7 = ? 

[104] 



ARITHMETIC 



8 
6 

4 

7 + 5, or - 3, or x 4 

9 



9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 




1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 




7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 






1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 






6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


6 








1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 









5 5 5 5 5 

1 1 3 4 5 

4 4 4 4 
£534 

3 3 3 
123 

2 2 
1 2 



Multiplication table in a square and similar drills, such 
as the magic squares, in which the sums of the figures in 
all the rows, added to the right or left, and the sums of 

[105] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 



the figures in all the columns, added up or down, will be 
the same. These are also very good for desk work. Many 
modifications of these may be thought of. 

Rapid, written addition, subtraction, multiplication, or 
division. Both class and teacher work on paper, the pupil 
getting answer stands as quickly as possible. 
Drills on aliquot parts are excellent. 
For common fractions and decimals use the same drills 

as for whole numbers. 
For class drills in 
fractions it furnishes 
good work to give 
quick questions like 
the following : What 
is the effect of multi- 
plying both dividend 
and divisor by the 
same number ? of mul- 
tiplying both numera- 
tor and denominator ? 
of multiplying the nu- 
merator ? of multiplying the denominator ? of dividing the 
numerator ? of dividing the denominator ? of dividing both 
numerator and denominator by the same number ? of mov- 
ing the decimal point to the right ? of moving the decimal 
point to the left ? of moving the decimal point one place ? of 
moving the decimal point two places ? Tenths of tenths 
give what? Tenths of hundredths ? How shall one decimal 
place be read ? How shall two decimal places be read ? 

Oral dictation like the following is valuable : 8, cipher, 
decimal point, cipher cipher, 7. What is the number ? 

[106] 



ARITHMETIC 

The device on the opposite page is a help in teaching 
the relation of tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. 

A cut-out square which stands for a single thing — a unit. 

It is divided into ten " strips." Each is a tenth. 

Each "strip," or tenth, is divided into ten "small 
squares," or hundredths. 

Each "small square" is divided into ten "slips," or 
thousandths. 

This may be used to show relations concretely, and for 
drill in writing decimals it is invaluable. 

A few of many ways in which the teacher may help 
the pupil to easier work. In long-addition work the pupil 
may be allowed to put the carrying figure over the proper 
column. He should be encouraged to do this, and no harm 
is done if he always continues it. It is never a hindrance 
and is often a help in proof or in finding mistakes. 

In subtraction when it is necessary to take one from a 
higher denomination, the figure may be crossed out and 
the resulting one be written in above, together with the 
change in the lower denomination resulting from the addi- 
tion of the new ten. This, however, is only an aid and 
should be dispensed with as soon as the process is thor- 
oughly understood and has become mechanical. 

Children should be encouraged to add up and down a 
column, and to both left and right when the work is written 
horizontally. This gets them into the habit of proving 
their work. 

Work like the following furnishes a good exercise for the 
children. " When I add I get a sum." " When I subtract 
I get a difference, or remainder." " When I multiply I get 
a product." 

[107] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

In oral work the pupil should exactly reverse his written 
order and add or subtract the hundreds, then the tens, 
then the units. For example, if he is to add orally 357 
and 246, he says, 557, 597, 603. 

Care should be used that both teacher and pupils always 
write units under units and tens under tens, not only in 
pure addition but in subtraction, multiplication, division. 

The children should be taught to write the quotient 
over the dividend, that each figure may go in its proper 
place and the whole example take less room, but they 
should know that it may be written at the right of the 
dividend if one chooses. This may save some friction and 
misunderstanding at home. 

Many examples in division should be done in class by 
both the long and the short method, with careful explana- 
tion of the relation between the processes as the work 
proceeds. The divisor taken should always be small. 

Not only in division but elsewhere the numbers used 
when a new process is being introduced should be so 
simple that the pupil has no difficulty in handling the num- 
bers. This leaves his mind perfectly free to understand 
the process. 

It is a good plan to teach the little children to place the 
remainder in an Unequal division " on the shelf." For 
example, 19 -f- 9 = 2^. This makes a good preparation 
for later writing of the remainder fractionally. This frac- 
tion, or numerator, should be written in smaller figures, 
both here and in other places. 

It should be thoroughly impressed upon the children 
that such a remainder is the undivided part and that any 
fraction is an expression of division. 

[108] 



ARITHMETIC 

In multiplying a mixed number by a mixed number 
many mistakes will be avoided if the child is trained so 
that he habitually looks for four multiplications — the 
whole number of the multiplicand by the whole number 
of the multiplier, the fraction of the multiplicand by the 
whole number of the multiplier, the whole number of the 
multiplicand by the fraction of the multiplier, and the frac- 
tion of the multiplicand by the fraction of the multiplier. 

In division of decimals confusion is saved if the divisor 
is always made a whole number. The pupil should be 
made sure of his right to do this by frequent drill on the 
result of moving the decimal point and of multiplying 
dividend and divisor by the same number. 

In finding areas pupils should not say, " Multiply the 
length by the breadth," leading later to multiplying feet 
by feet and getting square feet. Of course the idea in- 
tended is all right, but it is better to train them to say 
that they multiply the number of square units in a single 
row by the number of rows, or some equivalent statement. 
The same should hold true in dealing with solids. 

Analysis is helped if the pupil is trained to notice that 
his multiplier must be abstract always. This will destroy 
the tendency to multiply by eggs or dollars. It is also 
well for him to state just what the problem tells and what 
it asks. 

As many simple ways as possible should be suggested 
to pupils for simplifying work, such as the thought that 
lumber will cost as many mills a foot as dollars a thousand, 
or that coal will be half as many mills a pound as dollars 
a ton. Business ways of reckoning should be found and 
given to the pupils. For example, to paper a room first 

[109] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

find the perimeter, or distance around the room ; from the 
perimeter subtract the widths of the doors and windows ; 
reduce this result to half yards ; this number of half yards 
equals the total number of strips required. To find the 
length of one strip subtract the width of the border from 
the height of the room. To find the number of strips in 
one single roll divide the number of feet in one single 
roll by the number of feet in one strip. Divide the total 
number of strips required, by the number of strips in one 
single roll, and the result will be the number of single rolls 
required. To find the number of strips in one double roll 
divide the length of one double roll by the length of one 
strip. To find the number of double rolls required divide 
the total number of strips by the number of strips in one 
double roll. To find the number of double rolls of border 
required divide the perimeter of the room by the length of 
one double roll. 

Percentage examples are usually better done by analysis 
of the individual examples rather than by rules, though it 
may be of advantage to know the rules for performing the 
work under the different cases. 

Pupils should be taught most thoroughly that in dis- 
charging a note one cannot pay the principal before the 
interest is completely met. 

REFERENCES 

Charters. Teaching the Common Branches. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. 
Courtis. Standard Research Tests. S. A. Courtis, Detroit, Mich. 
Fassett. Standardized Number Tests. Milton Bradley Company. 
Gray. Number by Development. J. B. Lippincott Company. 

[IIO] 



ARITHMETIC 

Hoyt and Peet. First Year in Number. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. 

Johnson. Education by Plays and Games. Ginn and Company. 

McMurry. Special Method in Arithmetic. The Macmillan Com- 
pany. 

Smith. Teaching of Arithmetic. Ginn and Company. 

Stone-Millis. Primary Arithmetic. Benj. H. Sanborn & Co. 

Thompson. Minimum Essentials (Arithmetic). Ginn and Company. 

Wentworth-Smith. Work and Play with Numbers. Ginn and 
Company. 



[Ill] 



CHAPTER X 

READING 

Purpose of reading. The purpose of reading in our 
schools should be to make the children readers ; to cause 
them to turn to books, magazines, and all such mate- 
rial, with a real hunger for their contents and with ability 
to estimate the value of such contents ; to produce the 
reading habit, with the intense enjoyment that is the ac- 
companiment of such a habit. In order, however, to teach 
a child to read he must be taught how to read. Care should 
always be taken that the real object of the work is not 
swallowed up by the lesser aim. 

Primary Reading 

The word method. Children may be taught by the 
word method till they have been given sufficient training 
in the value of sounds so that they can study out words 
for themselves. After this power is acquired to a degree, 
the word method should blend with the sound method, the 
word work gradually yielding more and more to the 
phonetic till the children are reading by sound. 

Object and action work. Object and action work is 
helpful in teaching words, and by means of such work 
great interest may be aroused and speed of learning in- 
creased. For this work little toys or any common objects 
may be used. The children find the object or perform the 

[,112] 



READING 

act, as the teacher writes the word. "Doll," "baby," "cat," 
"dog," "rabbit," "ball," "hat," "run," "hop," "jump," 
" sing," and such words, are good to begin with. Though 
drill may be given on single words for some time if the 
teacher chooses, yet it is better to give sentences very 
early in the work. For this, sentences involving the objects 
and actions may be used, like " Roll the ball," " Bring the 
doll," " Make the cat run," " Clap your hands." 

Use of rhymes. In some ways type sentences furnish a 
capital means of work, and rhymes make excellent type 
sentences because the children easily learn them and are 
pleased with the rhythm. Some of the frequently used 
methods of reading are based on the rhyme, and the 
vocabularies of readers are so similar that any of these 
methods may be used for starting, even if it is not planned 
to follow the method entire. If any such method is found 
in use, the teacher will do well to follow it exactly, till she 
is sure she knows a better way. If no particular method is 
in use and the school is furnished with sets of readers, it is 
easy to look through the vocabulary and make little rhymes 
or prose sentences which contain the words that it is wished 
to teach. 

The general scheme for teaching reading by rhymes is 
as follows : Introduce the rhyme by telling a story in which 
the rhyme is used several times. Teach the rhyme by means 
of reproduction of the story and by games in which it may 
be made to occur. Present the rhyme written on board and 
cardboard. Have it said from the board, each word being 
pointed to as the rhyme is given. Teach the class to recog- 
nize single words in the rhyme, then single words written 
on the board outside of the rhyme. Soon use the rhyme 

[US] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

words in other sentences. The rhyme serves as a key, and 
if the child fails to recognize a word, he is referred to the 
rhyme to find it out. As soon as he is familiar with all the 
words of a rhyme a new one is presented in the same way, 
and drill is given upon the old and new words. This line 
of work is kept up until the child has acquired sufficient 
power with sounds so the word method may be dispensed 
with. An advantage of the rhyme method over other forms 
of word reading lies in the fact that the pupil is at once 
made self-supporting and is able to find out for himself, by 
the rhyme, any word of which he is uncertain. Each new 
rhyme, written or printed on cardboard, is hung up in sight 
of the class where it may be used for reference. With the 
rhymes, as with any method, print may be taught together 
with script or may be used in its stead, or it may be intro- 
duced by comparison after a few weeks. 

The reading chart. Though the blackboard is the chief 
factor for presenting the words and sentences during the 
sight reading, yet a reading chart may do good service in 
supplementing the board work and saving much time for 
teacher and class. There are charts for word reading to 
accompany some of the current methods, but if such can- 
not be obtained, a teacher may easily make one by aid of 
the rubber pen or the stamping outfit elsewhere described. 
The work may be done upon sheets of brown paper or 
upon cambric. The sheets may be fastened together or 
handled separately, according to the convenience of the 
user. A chart of this kind has the advantage of exactly 
fitting the needs of the teacher who makes it. If illus- 
trations are wished for, they may be done in water color 
or may be cut from books or magazines and applied. 

[114] 



READING 

The chart may present both sentences and lists of words 
to be used for class drill. 

Drill cards. Drill cards furnish an excellent means for 
giving quick drills. These cards have been described under 
the head of Apparatus. In using them the teacher should 
stand in front of the class, in such a place that all the class 
can see. She should hold the bunch of cards in a vertical 
position and slip the card from back to front, glancing at 
the back of each card as she slips it, to see what word is 
to be presented to the class. She should not walk about so 
as to stand near the child called upon, nor should she turn 
or move the cards in any way. A little observation or 
thought will show that if all the class are to see all the 
time, the only way is to hold the cards still. 

While variety in drills is an advantage, the card drill is 
so superior in many ways that it should be employed again 
and again. Variety may be furnished by such means as 
giving the child the card or dividing the class into 
sides and seeing which side will name more words, the 
card being dropped into one or the other pile as one side 
or the other answers. The cards may be taken right 
around the class, or individuals may be called upon, or the 
class or a division may answer in concert. The word-cards 
may be used also for other, slower drills. They may be 
placed upon the chalk rail, and the pupils may choose a 
card and match it to the object or to a word in a rhyme. 
Many devices of this kind may be thought of. 

Other drills for sight words. The pupil may name words 
as the teacher writes them and name them again as the 
boardful is erased, each word being threatened with the 
eraser to draw the attention of the class, the telling being 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

done after the word has vanished. As the teacher writes 
a word the child may name it and find it in a standing list. 
He may name all the words he knows in a long blackboard 
list, but the lists should be changed frequently to make 
this exercise profitable. 

Such devices as the game of Cat and Mouse or of 
Fox and Geese, with the pointer and words, the fish pond, 
the Christmas tree, the stone wall, the ladder-climbing, the 
railway train, may be used frequently if the class seems 
to require stimulating. The words should always be in an 
upright position and of good size. The guessing game is 
one of the best of devices. The teacher or pupil chooses 
a word, and the other pupils guess it by pointing to the 
words on board or chart and naming them as they point. 

The phonic, or phonetic, method. The word method fails 
to serve by itself in teaching reading, because it gives the 
pupil no way of finding out new words. This is of course 
a vital defect, and phonic work introduced fairly early in 
the course is essential if we expect good independent read- 
ing. The word method should be supplemented by some 
method which uses sounds as a basis and so makes the 
child able to discover new words through a knowledge of 
phonetic values. Among progressive teachers the fact is 
well established that careful work in phonics should be 
undertaken from the start. There are now available excel- 
lent systems of phonetic books which require no specially 
trained teachers and whose subject matter is interesting to 
children. In such a method the words may be unmarked 
or the ordinary, dictionary, diacritical marks may be used. 
Which is done depends upon the teacher's attitude, as 
equally good arguments, backed by equally good authorities, 

[116] 



READING 

may be quoted in support of either practice. There is gen- 
eral agreement, however, as to the need of teaching sounds. 

Though reading by the word method may go on for 
weeks or months, according to the theories of the teacher, 
yet preparation for reading by sound should be begun soon 
after the child enters school. He should be taught both 
the sounds of the letters and the blending of sounds into 
words, but this work is best carried on in a lesson separate 
from the reading lesson. 

Learning sounds. He may learn the sounds by analyzing 
words into their elements, beginning usually with initial 
sounds, as r, the first part of " run " ; d, the first part of 
" day." Later he may use other parts of words, as ay, the 
last part of "day," "play," "say." By analysis of known 
words in this way, he may be taught the sounds of single 
letters and of the more usual combinations of letters. 

If preferred, the sounds may be presented outside of 
words, many teachers choosing not to break up the reading 
words as early as must be done to get sounds by analysis. 
In this case it is well to introduce the sounds by connect- 
ing them with stories, r representing the growl of the cross 
dog, f the sound made by the cross cat, t the tick of a 
watch, s the sound of water on hot iron, d the sound 
of the dove. Something may be found to stand for nearly 
all the common sounds. Cards with pictures of the object 
and the printed and the script letter may be hung around 
the room to catch the eyes of the children and strengthen 
the association. Such cards should not be used for regular 
drill, but should serve as a key only. 

Recognition of word through hearing sounds. Children 
need drill also, through one or two years, on recognizing 

[117] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

words which they hear the teacher sound, these words not 
being presented to the eye at all. These should be very 
easy at first, but later may grow more difficult. Words like 
"right," "sing," "say," and "fill" are good to begin with. 

Sounding words. As soon as the pupil has power 
enough to recognize the elements, which may be single 
letters, combinations of letters, or smaller sight words, he 
should be given drills on sounding words, which may be 
presented to the eye on board, chart, or card. These words 
should be very simple at first. Lists of words in a series 
are best to start with, and this work with a list of words 
containing a common element should be kept up for a long 
time, but, after a little, many words arranged miscellane- 
ously should be taken also. The child gives the sounds 
aloud as the teacher points to them, and then he names 
the word. 

Need of continued drill. Drill in sounding letters, in 
recognizing words by hearing, and in sounding words , 
should be kept up indefinitely, the last forming the work 
that, under the head of word study, constitutes the pre- 
liminary for all school reading. 

Phonetic drills. Phonetic cards, containing a single 
phonogram either simple or compound, furnish the best 
means of drill. These cards should be used in the way 
recommended for the sight-word cards. The drill may also 
be given from phonetic charts and from board lists. Other 
interesting drills are the following : Show letters or give 
sounds and have the pupils tell words or point to objects 
beginning with that sound. Make sounds or give names 
of objects and have pupils find the letter that makes the 
indicated sound, Many variations of these last exercises 

[118] 



READING 

may be made. In addition to this work with single sounds 
words may be sounded from cards, board, and chart. This 
is of great importance and should never be omitted in the 
daily work. There are several good charts to be obtained, 
or one may be made by the teacher. This drill work be- 
ing of so much value, it ought as early as possible to be 
incorporated into the desk work and made to serve its 
purpose without ceasing. 

Sound should continue to be the basis of getting words 
in reading. Remembering that this sound work is given 
as a means of reading, the teacher should never fail to 
use it to that end. Some teachers keep their phonics al- 
ways apart from reading, while others use the work for a 
little while and later discard it. As early as possible it 
should be made a direct means for reading and should so 
serve continuously. 

If no method is in use. If the teacher finds a particular 
method being employed in her school, she should use it ; 
but if no method is given her, and she has only the usual 
school readers, she should adapt her method to the cir- 
cumstances. She should teach the most common sounds 
first. She should do much general phonetic work, because 
every common word sounded by a child tends to suggest 
to him that the proper way of getting at words is through 
sound. The teacher should also, as soon as the child ad- 
vances a little, — say with the beginning of the First Reader, 
— watch in his book for every word of which he has had 
the elements, include it in the board lists, and also have 
the child get it by sounding from his book if he falters over 
it in his reading. If this plan is kept up carefully, very soon 
the pupil will be able to get most new words phonetically. 

[ii9] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Any teacher may obtain much help by study of the manuals 
issued in connection with the various reading methods. 
This is true whether she is following a particular method 
or working along by herself in an attempt to formulate one. 

Supplementary reading. It is not usually necessary for 
little children to study their reading lessons in advance, 
but it is very desirable that they read silently and by them- 
selves from books of about the same grade as the class 
readers or a little easier. If a supplementary set of different 
kinds has been secured, as suggested earlier, each child 
will have access to as many books as he can read in the 
time available. These books, arranged on a desk or low 
shelf, may be called the First- and Second-Grade Library, 
and the children will doubly enjoy the idea of going to the 
library or of borrowing books from it. In addition to this, 
the children should be encouraged to read at home, both 
silently and aloud. There should also be much class read- 
ing, from books easier than the regular readers. The 
teacher should read to the class frequently. Dramatizing, 
and anything that will give life and interest to the work, 
should abound. Every effort should be made to create an 
interest in reading, a desire to read much and well. 

Reading with good expression has its effect in produc- 
ing a desire to read. In the work with higher grades, sug- 
gestions are made which should help to better expression. 
Here it may be said that a child reads well that which 
he thoroughly understands and enjoys. Getting the story 
ready, talking about the conditions, playing one is the per- 
son speaking, imitation, many such devices, serve as a 
help, and always the child should be impressed with the 
fact that in oral reading he must give an idea to others in 

[120] 



READING 

such a way that they may understand and enjoy it with 
him. One of the best means in such work is the having 
frequent exercises in which one pupil reads and the others 
are without books or else close their books and listen. 
This work is of advantage through all the grades. 

Advanced Reading 

Difficulties and general method of treating. With the 
children who have advanced somewhat in the art of read- 
ing, the work often presents greater difficulties than does 
that with a class of beginners, since these children fre- 
quently have not acquired the power of reading thought- 
fully and expressively and of making their reading a large 
means of acquiring information. It is to accomplish these 
things and to arouse in the children a fondness for the right 
kind of reading, that the teacher must work long and faith- 
fully. Often the more advanced classes have been taught to 
read by the word method only and are without a means for 
getting new words. So the first thing the teacher should 
do is to ascertain how much the child is able to sound 
words, and if he is found lacking, to teach him to know 
the sounds of all the letters and common combinations 
and the way of sounding words. This may be done much 
more quickly than with the younger children, but in about 
the same way. The work may be given in the word-study 
time, which should form a period by itself, but it may also 
be taken as a part of each reading period if that seems 
better. If the children are reading matter too difficult for 
them, they may be put back, or the reading lesson may be 
made very short and a large part of the time, at first, be 
occupied by the phonetic-drill work. Such classes should 

[121] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

also have many exercises in giving the sounds called for, 
as, " What is the sound of short e, which is marked with 
the curve, or breve ? " " What is the sound of long a, 
which is marked with the straight line, or macron ? " Till 
the child gains some power the teacher will have to help 
him to get words by telling him the syllables or by spell- 
ing, but she should aid him by sounds as rapidly as possible. 

Work for pronunciation. In order for a child to read 
well in class, he should know how to pronounce the words. 
This, as stated, should be accomplished by the word study. 
Such words as seem troublesome should be put upon the 
board and taken up with the children before the study of 
the lesson is taken. They may be marked diacritically if 
it seems best. They should be carefully and correctly pro- 
nounced by the children. A word not known should be 
sounded, the child being helped in the sounding by telling 
the accent mark, the syllables, or the sounds of the letters. 
The pronunciation of the list may be repeated at the be- 
ginning of the recitation if the teacher thinks it necessary. 

Work for understanding. To read intelligently, a child 
needs to know the meaning of the words and of the selec- 
tion as a whole. For this he may be trained generally to 
look up in the dictionary such words as he does not know 
the meaning of, and specific words may be assigned to 
look up. He should also be trained to the habit of judging 
what a word may mean by its use in the sentence. 

Understanding the whole idea of the lesson is best 
gained by thought, and much free discussion is a great 
aid to thought. Talking about the lesson before, after, and 
during the reading not only greatly enlarges a child's 
understanding of the subject matter but puts him in a 

[122] 



READING 

sympathetic attitude which greatly helps his reading. 
There should be little limit to permission given the chil- 
dren to ask questions freely and to volunteer opinions, and 
such free questioning is sometimes stimulated by requir- 
ing the children to prepare several questions to be asked 
of each other. Free discussion, in which the child is moved 
by interest and tells his opinions and asks those of others, 
maintaining his ground by argument, is better than telling 
the story of the lesson, though that has its place. Too 
close discussion of every paragraph as it is read, the mean- 
ing of every word and idea being dragged out from the 
one who has done the reading, is likely to defeat the pur- 
pose for which it was intended. It is better to have a 
collection of paragraphs read and have a general class dis- 
cussion at intervals. The one who has done the reading 
should usually correct his own mistakes of pronunciation or 
meaning, but if he also tells all about the section, he gets 
too much time, and the rest of the class lose their interest. 
Other aids. Punctuation furnishes an aid to correct 
reading, but it is not well to have the children read by 
following punctuation rules. They should be taught that 
every punctuation mark means something, and therefore 
one should seldom be read over. A period, for example, 
shows the end of a thought, and the reading should rec- 
ognize this ; a comma indicates a slight division and so 
should not be overlooked. The child should be trained to 
make his reading say something as he thinks the author 
meant it to be said. He should read so that he may en- 
tertain and please his classmates, who form his audience. 
Many general directions of this sort will help children to 
a power to read well. 

[123] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Position and voice. When the time comes for an indi- 
vidual child to read he should pass to the front of the 
room, with book held at his side or in some other easy 
position. He should not study the page on his way. He 
should stand facing the class, erect, on both feet, with 
head up. The book should be held so he can see easily 
and so the mouth shall not be covered. No exact direction 
can be given, as eyes differ, but usually the book is held 
too near the body, and the head is dropped so that clear 
utterance is impossible. To get the head fixed and then 
adjust the book is a good order. The high, harsh, school- 
room shout or scream should be avoided, as should the 
schoolroom mumble. Distinct, rather than loud, reading is 
what is needed, but it should be remembered that there 
are partially deaf children in nearly every company. 

Interruptions and corrections. The child should read 
tminterruptedly . There should have been abundant word 
study, and that is supposed to have included the hard 
words. Now the pupil should show what he can do. In- 
terruptions break the thought, disturb the reader and the 
listeners, and are altogether undesirable. They easily turn 
the reading time into another word-study period. After 
the reader finishes his paragraph the teacher should help 
him to correct his mistakes. She should not stand near 
him, since all the class will be benefited by the work and 
all should hear. She should indicate the mispronounced 
words by line and number, help him to see the exact mis- 
take and correct it, bring out any wrong impression by 
questions, and then, if necessary, have him read it again. 
If the teacher looks after the corrections instead of having 
the children correct each other, their attention is saved 

[124] 



READING 

for the really important things of reading instead of being 
centered on the finding of petty flaws. 

It is very essential that corrections be made in a way to 
increase a child's power to read. Telling him how to pro- 
nounce is of very little value. He may be told a dozen 
times the way to pronounce a word and be little better off. 
Often he gives it correctly except for the sound of a single 
letter, or the accent. Much time may be saved if the 
teacher learns to recognize the exact difficulty instead of 
working haphazard for a long time over a word. In gen- 
eral, the things that matter are the ones to be corrected, 
and certain unimportant things may be passed by. It is 
not wise to take half the recitation period to correct the 
blunders of one child. Some of his mistakes may be 
passed, or he may read a shorter section. True it is that 
he needs the reading and the correction, but the attention 
of a whole class should not be lost except for very large 
reasons. 

Re-reading, pertain children need extra reading after 
school with the teacher. It is better to take it then than 
to waste the time of the class and hurt the self-respect of 
the child by frequent re-reading or by taking too much 
time. It is not kind to have the work of some children 
always marked as unsatisfactory by having the paragraph 
read immediately by some child who can do it better, nor 
is this specially good for the one who reads it better. This 
reading over may be done in a few instances when several 
have a try at it, but ordinarily it is better to have the read- 
ing progress without much repetition. Much of the repeat- 
ing is unnecessary. One need not read a whole paragraph 
for one or two mispronounced words. No reading over 

[125] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

should be done till the mistakes are corrected, and a second 
reading, when one is given, should always show a marked 
improvement over the first. It is to be remembered, how- 
ever, that poetry differs from prose, and the stanzas may 
well be read more than once in many cases, suggestions 
and corrections following each reading. 

There has been not only too much reading over of para- 
graphs but too much reassignment of lessons. This has 
been due in part to lack of books, but a teacher may better 
worry her superintendent greatly in her demand for new 
material than waste the time and courage of the class by 
droning over books they already know by heart, while the 
world is full of good literature going to waste. 

Best reading material. Readers of the kind called sup- 
plementary are very much better than the ordinary reading 
books. Methods of getting such reading have already been 
suggested. If books are obtainable only with difficulty, one 
may get on fairly well if only the teacher and the pupil 
reading have a book, the others listening in turn. The 
books read in class should be really worth while, and those 
not too long should be chosen ; " Little Nell," for example, 
being better in this respect than " Little Women." It 
should be kept in mind that much reading of good litera- 
ture is the very best means of training children to love 
that kind. The teacher may also do much in the way of 
increasing love of good literature by judicious recommen- 
dation and suggestions on those lines. It were better that 
a child were given a fondness for good books than that he 
learn by heart the pages of many textbooks. The silent 
reading in the schools should be much increased, read- 
ing being done in connection with geography, history, 

[126] 



READING 

language, and science. There should be much of this sort 
of reading, with short reports in class. In this way the 
research habit is formed and the expression habit aided. 
It is worth much to get a child to the place where he 
turns to books for information. Every means should be 
employed to create and maintain a taste for right reading, 
yet far too often a teacher, by her attitude if not by her 
words, discourages a child's interest in books. 

REFERENCES 

Arnold, Bonney, and Southworth. See and Say Series. Ginn 
and Company. 

Arnold. Reading and How to Teach It. Silver, Burdett & Com- 
pany. 

Briggs and Coffman. Reading in Public Schools. Row, Peterson 
and Company. 

Fassett. Beacon Method (Phonetic Chart, Reading Chart, Percep- 
tion Cards, Word Builders, and Readers). Ginn and Company. 

McMurry. Special Method in Reading. The Macmillan Company. 

Manual for Progressive Road to Reading. Silver, Burdett & Com- 
pany. 

Spaulding and Bryce. Learning to Read (Aldine). Newson & 
Company. 

Summers Reading Manual. Frank D. Beattys & Co. 

Taylor. Principles and Methods of Teaching Reading. The Mac- 
millan Company. 

Ward Reading Manual. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

Dramatic Readers mentioned on page 263. 



[127] 



CHAPTER XI 
DICTIONARY STUDY 

Power to use the dictionary is necessary for much of 
the regular school work, and children should be trained 
early not only to the power but to the habit of consulting 
it. Many teachers begin earlier, but if the dictionary has 
become a ready tool during the fourth and fifth school 
years, that will answer all practical purposes. 

Preparation for formal dictionary study. As a prepara- 
tion for the work, a review should be given in arranging 
lists of words alphabetically : first, according to the first 
letters ; later, according to all the letters. For this last it 
is a good plan to give lists, all words of which begin with 
the same letter. The teacher will have to make sure that 
the children know the letters in their order. When they 
can arrange such lists readily they may do some diacritical 
marking of words. Teachers will do well to see if they 
themselves can do this correctly. A good way to find out 
is to mark some words and then sound according to the 
markings, and note results. If children have been given 
marked words in connection with their reading, no trouble 
need arise here. If not, they will have to be taught 
most carefully the dictionary markings for all vowels and 
consonants. 

Class practice in looking up words. When the pupils 
can arrange a list easily and interpret markings with a fair 

[128] 



DICTIONARY STUDY 

degree of skill, they are ready to look up some sample 
words. The first work should be done in class under the 
superintendence of the teacher. A small dictionary should 
be used, as the larger ones are confusing. It works well 
to begin the exercise by asking the general place in the 
alphabet of a number of letters ; for example, c near the 
beginning, m and n near the middle, s toward the close, 
r just before s, w quite a distance beyond s. In this way 
the pupil gets a notion of where to open the book in look- 
ing up a word and of which way to turn when it is opened. 
Finding the proper letter, he looks for the word near the 
beginning, the middle, or end of that section, as the case 
may be. He is trained to know whether he is almost there 
or whether he has gone too far, by his observation of the 
successive letters ; abr, for instance, coming before abs. 
The words at the heads of the columns will help also. 

Determining pronunciation. Having found the word, he 
learns to get its pronunciation by the markings and accent, 
or in some cases by finding it spelled out. Sometimes he 
has to turn to the key at the bottom of the page, but it is 
better that his key should be located in his brain, though 
he ought to know that different dictionaries sometimes 
differ in their markings. Webster markings, however, are 
nearly identical with those in use in most of the modern 
reading series. 

Knowledge of parts of speech. It is further necessary, 
in part for the pronunciation, sometimes for the meaning, 
that the child learn the markings for the different parts of 
speech : a. for adjective, v. for verb, adv. for adverb. He 
needs also an ever-increasing ability to recognize the parts 
of speech as he meets them anywhere. Their value in 

[129] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

dictionary study furnishes a strong argument for giving 
much simple practice in such recognition through the 
fourth grade and upwards, yet the recognition of parts of 
speech is a difficult thing, and perfection should be only 
aimed at and not expected for a long time. 

Testing knowledge of meaning. The test of a child's 
knowledge of the meaning of words is found in his power 
to use them intelligently. Little children, in connection 
with their word study, may be asked the meaning of many 
words, no exact definition being expected, only something 
that shows the child's understanding. The teacher may 
also give simple definitions in place of asking the pupil 
or may illustrate the use of the word. The pupil should 
frequently give words in sentences. It is a pleasing exer- 
cise as well as a profitable one. From the time when the 
dictionary comes into use, the teacher should repeatedly 
test the child's definition by the sentence. Excellent prac- 
tice is furnished by selecting words from the reading lesson 
for looking up. The pupil should find the word in the 
reader and the definition in the dictionary. He should 
read the sentence aloud from the book or from his copy 
of it. Then he may substitute his definition for the word 
in the book. He may also give an original sentence con- 
taining the word and an original sentence with the defini- 
tion substituted. Care should be used that the sentence 
really shows if the child understands the meaning. It is 
not wise to try to teach all the meanings the word may 
have, just its meaning in the particular place being better. 
Many teachers, by assigning a few words daily to be looked 
up, in time enlarge greatly the children's vocabularies and 
increase interest in the study of words. 

[130] 



DICTIONARY STUDY 

Need of individual dictionaries. Each child should have 
a small dictionary to keep in his desk. There should also 
be a larger one for general use. Webster's Collegiate 
Dictionary serves very well for all the more usual needs 
of a school. 

REFERENCES 

Ashmore. Manual of Pronunciation. Ginn and Company. 
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. G. & C. Merriam Company. 



[131] 



CHAPTER XII 

SPELLING 

Time of beginning. Opinions vary as to the best time 
for beginning spelling. Many do much work with it during 
the first year, while others do not begin it till the middle 
of the second. Third-grade children should undoubtedly 
have made quite a deal of progress in the spelling of sim- 
ple words, but it should be remembered that much may 
be done towards making spelling easy before set spelling 
lessons are begun. 

Manner of beginning. Before children are able to do 
much in the writing line they may be given spelling prac- 
tice by means of the word-building letter cards. Work of 
this sort may be done at their desks to any extent desired 
by the teacher. As soon as pupils begin to write at all 
freely they may copy from board or paper very short sen- 
tences containing the words used in their reading. A 
sentence made by the pupil and written on the board by 
the teacher should be copied over and over, till at last the 
teacher, thinking the child must have a mental picture of 
the words, erases them and tells him to write the sentence 
many times on his paper without seeing it. If he can write 
it without looking at it, he knows how to spell the words 
in a way sufficient for his needs. Getting so one knows 
how a word looks is an important step in the process of 
spelling. This plan of writing sentences from copy and 

[132] 



SPELLING 

finally from dictation, when once begun, should be kept 
up during all the first years. After a while the sentences 
may grow longer, but they should not increase in length 
too rapidly, short sentences being best for some time. 

Series spelling. As early, also, as the time when the 
child has mastered in his reading work the sounds of the 
more common single letters and the combinations earliest 
met, he may begin to make progress in building words 
from common elements — work which is generally called 
series spelling. To neglect this drill is to make the child 
work for a long time in conquering individually words which 
he might just as well overcome in squads of varying size. 
Knowing that a-i-l spells " ail," he can with ease and inter- 
est make a large number of ail words and thereafter have 
them at his command. This work, begun reasonably early, 
may be prolonged — in connection with other spelling — 
through the third year, and it forms an excellent medium 
for establishing a pronounced spelling interest, the interest 
increasing with the age of the children. The child learns 
to spell and gets a broad view of the demands of spelling, 
as much through the words he suggests for his series only 
to have them discarded as through those that are accepted. 
If, for example, he is using the oat series : 

" What word can you think of ? " says the teacher. 

" I should use b with oat." 

" What will the word be ? " 

" ' Boat' " 

"Spell 'boat.'" 

" B-o-a-t, ' boat.' " 

" Who has another word ? " 

" ' Coat,' " says the next. 

[133] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

" How shall we spell it ? " 
"K-o-a-t." 

" K does make that sound, but we use another letter 
here. What other letter makes that sound ? " 

" cr 

" That is the one. Now spell ' coat.' " 
L-o-a-t. 

" Who has another word ? " 

" ' Noat.' " 

" No, we spell ' note ' n-o-t-e. That gives you a new 
way of saying ote. We will try those words a little later. 
Can you think of another ? " 

" ' Moat.' " 

" Yes. What does that mean ? We may also use m 
with o-t-e. What does m-o-t-e mean ? " 

The words of the intended series and of the new sug- 
gested series being put on the board in columns, and the 
incorrect spelling, like k-o-a-t, not being written, the child 
has profited by his mistakes. 

The work of the lesson may be continued on paper, the 
pupil writing all the words he can think of. The teacher, 
looking over the papers afterwards, finds certain errors that 
may be taken up before the class in general, a few to be 
spoken of individually. It is often well to make a revised 
list from the papers of the children and put it upon the 
board, to be surely learned by all the class. Usually the chil- 
dren will suggest words of one syllable, but frequently much 
longer ones will be thought of. Bouton's " Spelling and 
Word Building " and the " See and Say Series," Books II, 
III, and IV, furnish good material for this work. In 
connection with the series spelling, the pupil may be 

[134] 



SPELLING 

taught much in the way of putting his spelling on a logical 
basis, for though spelling is greatly a matter of the eye, yet 
certain sounds are habitually made by certain letters and 
certain letters make certain sounds, and the child should 
be made to recognize this. That is what was meant by 
saying that a foundation may be laid for spelling before 
a great deal of actual spelling is done. 

Learning value of letters. Learning the value of letters 
for spelling may be begun along with learning the sounds. 
The teacher should ask repeatedly what letter or letters 
may make a certain sound which she gives orally, and she 
should drill on what sounds certain given letters may make. 
A common mistake in spelling is illustrated by these words : 
mad, intended for " made " ; multitud, for " multitude." 
The child should be taught to know that m-a-d spells 
" mad " ; that the very thing that makes us pronounce 
m-a-d-e " made " is the silent e at the end, which always 
changes short a, e, i, o, u, into long a, e, i, o, u. If he is 
taught the effect of i upon a in such words as " plain," 
" gain," " rain," then he will remember to put it in. It is 
better to teach the relation between letters and sounds and 
show the pupil how to think out a corresponding letter for 
a given sound in a few words than to spell mechanically 
a large number. True, his reasoning will often fail, but 
his spelling will often come right in this way, and at any 
rate it will usually approximate the real sound of the word. 

Spelling of miscellaneous words. Early in school work 
the pupil may be given miscellaneous words for spelling 
lessons. These words may be selected from his reading 
or other lessons or from a spelling book. Where reading 
is taught by phonic methods spelling books are needed less 

[135] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

than where the word method only is followed. Still, spell- 
ing books have much to commend them. If too hard or too 
rare words are encountered, the teacher should use judg- 
ment in making omissions. Children have a reading vocab- 
ulary in excess of their writing vocabulary ; that is, they 
understand many words that they meet in reading, which 
they would never employ in their writing — just as a little 
child for a long time understands what is said to him 
though unable to express himself freely. A child's spell- 
ing vocabulary needs to keep up with his writing vocab- 
ulary, but not necessarily to equal that of his reading. 
Most spellers are at least a year too advanced, so that it 
would be well to have each grade spelling the words in- 
tended by the author for the year before. Not only that, 
but the teacher, knowing the power of her class, should 
select such words as fit their needs and calmly pass by the 
rest. Always it should be kept in mind that the common 
words, like "till," "until," "which," "where," "there," 
" their," and " gone," are the words that the children will 
most surely need and which they will be less likely to look 
up in the dictionary than the harder ones. The pupils may 
be relied upon to learn the spelling of some words through 
finding them in their reading, and that method of learn- 
ing should be trusted to in the case of unusual words or 
those needed for school work only. 

Oral and written spelling necessary. The child uses 
his spelling in his writing almost exclusively, but oral spell- 
ing is quicker and more interesting, and many children 
find the act of writing so difficult that they have no thought 
power left with which to spell. Such children need to 
amass and store many words through oral spelling. It 

[136] 



SPELLING 

seems evident that both oral and written spelling should 
be used. In lower grades the oral should be greatly in ex- 
cess of written ; in middle, they should be about equal ; in 
the highest, the written somewhat in excess. Definitions 
very simply expressed and sentences employing the word 
should be a frequent accompaniment of the lesson. 

Oral spelling. In neither oral nor written spelling should 
the words be given out in the order in which they are pre- 
sented for study. For oral work it is well to have the word 
pronounced before and after spelling, and many good re- 
sults come if the spelling is done by syllables, each syllable 
being pronounced after it is spelled. Many devices may 
be adopted for improving oral spelling. The children may 
stand by rows, each child sitting as he spells correctly. If 
desired, the teacher may quickly write each misspelled 
word correctly on the board for the child to spell right 
before he sits. Account may be kept of the number of 
words missed by each row. The words may usually be 
given out with better effect miscellaneously, as each child 
listens rather more closely. 

Written spelling. In written spelling, neat papers should 
be exacted, the children being trained to spell the word cor- 
rectly the first time. Syllable separation should be avoided 
here, as such a separation keeps the word from giving to 
the eye the right effect so valuable in helping to correct 
spelling with some people. The words should be begun 
with small letters unless the capital is an essential part of 
the word. The pupils may correct each other's papers occa- 
sionally, but too much observation of incorrect spelling is 
not without its effect in blurring the mental image just re- 
ferred to as being so helpful in producing correct spelling. 

[137] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Study of spelling. It is essential to produce as earnest 
study as possible, but what children need more are proper 
ways of study. The teacher is a very necessary factor in 
spelling study, and she should study the lesson with the 
children as often as may be — at any rate till she has estab- 
lished the right habits. It is well to pronounce all the 
words first, distinctly and emphatically, otherwise the child 
may fix a bad pronunciation by his very eagerness to learn. 
The pupil should be trained to select the hardest words 
and study those, not waste himself on what he already 
knows. Spelling is so largely a matter of the eye as well 
as ear that the flash method of study is good — having the 
class look at a word for an instant then close their books 
and think how it looks, after which some child should 
spell it aloud. The pupils may also spell the words from 
the book in concert, closing the book after each word and 
spelling as many times as the teacher thinks best, or they 
may spell by rows or singly. Through all this work the 
teacher should keep them watching; thinking; using judg- 
ment as to amount of study needed, as to relations of 
sounds; noticing little tricks for help, like finding "a rat" 
in "separate" or "lie" in "believe." Certain rules for spell- 
ing may well be taught ; as, i before e except after c, or 
when sounded like a as in "neighbor" or "weigh." Some 
of the others are the rules for changing y to i before an 
added syllable ; for dropping silent e at the end of a word, 
before the addition of a syllable ; for doubling consonants 
before additions, if the consonant is preceded by a single 
vowel in words of one syllable. Only the simplest rules 
should be taken. They are easily learned at this stage, 
long remembered, and occasionally used. Sometimes the 

[138] 



SPELLING 

children may be given slips of paper and complete their 
study by writing the words as many times as seem neces- 
sary to fix them in mind, not the same number of times 
for each word. 

Spelling in connection with other lessons. Spelling as 
an isolated subject is being given less time in schools, 
though much may be said in favor of straight spelling les- 
sons. It is receiving greater attention as a handmaid in 
other subjects. This emphasis is a very good thing. Learn- 
ing to spell words because they are needed in writing, 
studying them for this purpose before the writing, and 
after the writing because of misspelling, will produce great 
improvement. An excellent plan, which takes very little 
time, is to select the most important words which have 
been generally misspelled in a set of papers and have 
them spelled at the beginning of the next lesson in the 
subject. They should be only five or six in number, and 
the plan is not to drill upon them, absorbing much time, 
but to have the class hear them spelled correctly once, 
with attention. Such work has been known to produce a 
marked gain in general spelling power. It will be found 
that nearly all will have misspelled the same words. 

Encouraging spelling interest. Spelling sometimes be- 
comes so attractive to children as to be almost a mania. 
They wish to spell everything, and enjoy it above other 
subjects. This time is quite apt to lie somewhere between 
the third and sixth grades. While this fancy is on, it 
should be emphasized by taking even more than usual 
time for it. It should also receive the approval and en- 
couragement of the teacher and may be fostered in many 
ways — by matches, by starting ideas like spelling all the 

[139] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

names of kitchen utensils or names of animals, flowers, 
or foods. Anything suggesting a game or contest will 
arouse interest. 

The spelling match is a device well calculated to pro- 
duce enthusiasm. It may be used in connection with both 
oral and written work. Keeping account of perfect spell- 
ing lessons, choosing sides, spelling down, any like idea, 
will stimulate to great effort. If the words to be used in 
a particular spelling match be given out for study a week 
or so ahead, the match will not only serve to create in- 
terest in spelling generally but will make the child learn 
to spell these special words. If spelling proceeds with no 
attempt to arouse enthusiasm, a whole class will often miss 
more than half the words day after day with little disturb- 
ance on their part, so the teacher has to lend herself as 
an incentive in the matter. Too great stimulus, however, 
either of rank or contests, leads easily to cheating. If a 
teacher can produce correct spelling through a sense of 
its importance and a desire to be a good speller, it is 
probably better so ; yet many devices, rightly handled, 
will help in this way. 

Combination of classes. Combinations of classes for 
spelling may be made easily. Two classes may study the 
same words, but this is not at all necessary. In either oral 
or written spelling recitation two or three or more classes 
may work at the same time, the words being given to each 
alternately in written work, or, in oral, the child to whose 
class it was assigned for study being called upon to spell 
a word. The teacher may turn from one part of the 
speller to the other or she may copy the words of the 
separate lists so as to handle the work more easily. 

[140] 



SPELLING 

The poor speller. The teacher should remember that, 
while spelling is of great importance, some children are 
born almost wholly lacking in the power to learn it. Such 
children should be helped by every spelling scheme known. 
They should put a reasonable time on it, but stress should 
be laid on simple words. They should be taught to look 
carefully at everything they copy, to know that they are 
weak in spelling and so use observation and the dictionary 
freely. Spelling, though essential, is not really vital. The 
man who cannot spell may be strong enough in other 
ways to employ a typewriter, so no child should put all 
his time upon it or be too greatly condemned for inability. 
Spelling may be "an accomplishment he cannot afford the 
time to acquire." 

REFERENCES 

Bouton. Spelling and Word Building. University Publishing 

Company. 
Peirce. The Peirce Spellers. Ginn and Company. 
Thompson. Minimum Essentials (Spelling). Ginn and Company. 
Ward Reading Manual. Silver, Burdett & Company. 



[MI] 



CHAPTER XIII 
LANGUAGE 

Early language work, oral and incidental. In the first 
few years of school life there is little time or need for 
regular language lessons, yet this time furnishes an excel- 
lent opportunity to get the child well started toward a 
mastery of correct oral English. This is always of greater 
importance than written language, since all the world talks, 
while the greater part of it writes only occasionally. The 
purpose of training in English is much better served by 
means of uninterrupted attention to the language met 
incidentally than by any set language lessons. 

Ways of improving English. There are at least five 
excellent ways of improving a child's spoken English, out- 
side of the regular lessons : (i) the teacher should use 
correct English herself ; (2) she should present as many 
good models as possible in the shape of literature — that 
is, through the poem and story ; (3) she should make the 
child talk as much as possible ; (4) she should habitually 
correct the English he employs ; (5) she should get him 
into the habit of watching his own language and that of 
other people to see what forms are used and what are the 
best ones. 

The teacher's English. Few teachers give the attention 
they ought to their own forms of expression. Early asso- 
ciations, too much hearing of poor or incorrect forms, 

[142] 



LANGUAGE 

carelessness, laziness, and a lack of appreciation of its im- 
portance cause the teacher to present day by day to the 
children models that should be shunned rather than copied. 
Incorrect English seems to be contagious, and the teacher 
should fight it as she would any contagious disease. She 
should watch for its symptoms in herself and destroy them 
as rapidly as possible. When she makes a mistake she 
should go back and correct it. Observation of the work 
of many teachers reveals a surprisingly small percentage 
who speak correctly or notice the mistakes of others. We 
shall never greatly improve the language of our people till 
the teachers furnish better models. 

Presentation of good models. Children who read at 
home a great deal, and who are in the habit of hearing 
good literature, early acquire book language in their speech. 
This may be amusing sometimes, but it is the foundation 
for a grasp of good English. It is perfectly possible to 
pick out from a school, children who live in cultured, 
reading homes, just from their vocabularies and their 
ease and fluency of expression. Too much cannot be said 
in favor of an abundance of good literature in school — 
for training in English expression, if no other good came 
from it. More will be said of this in connection with the 
poem and story. 

Free expression by pupils. Children do not talk enough 
in school. They pass through the day, week, and month, 
in many schools, and hardly give free expression to a 
single idea couched in their own language. They answer 
Yes or No or a book sentence to the questions. The 
teacher talks much, the children but little. This is alto- 
gether wrong. The purpose of much of the talking of 

[143] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

the teacher should be to produce free talking by the child. 
With little children the answers should usually be given 
in sentences. This will be somewhat formal work at first 
but will soon grow into a habit. Even this is not enough. 
What is wanted is free, spontaneous talking by the child, 
just as he talks out of school. Much rambling will be 
present, but after free expression has been obtained, then 
we may train the child to talk to the point. At first it is 
not very necessary that he stick directly to the point at 
issue. He should be allowed to tell his long and round- 
about tales ; this may be looked out for later. Freedom 
of speech cannot be obtained by set language lessons, it 
must come in every lesson. The morning exercises, the 
reading class, the geography, particularly the nature lessons, 
every place in the day in which the child forgets himself, 
will furnish a good opportunity. He should be given things 
to talk about. They should be made so interesting that he 
longs to tell and to ask. This is the secret of free speech. 
In a certain school in which free talking has always been 
encouraged, new children find themselves first in the 
nature lessons, next in the geography and history, then in 
the reading. These subjects, in the order mentioned, seem 
to arouse the child's interest and bring him out of himself. 
Little children are usually ready enough, but often a year 
or two in school seems to kill the power which it is so 
desirable to develop. If this plan of free talking is con- 
sistently followed, the children not only learn English but 
they are using the proper method of learning anything. 

Correction of pupils' English. The child's English 
should be corrected, but not in such a way as to dampen 
his ardor. If correction is begun early and kept up as 

[M4] 



LANGUAGE 

carefully as in arithmetic or grammar, the pupil learns to 
take it as a matter of course. He should not be stopped 
in the middle of a sentence to correct him, and the correc- 
tion should seem incidental, but it should be made unless 
for some strong reason to prevent it. It takes time, and 
in case of foreign children seems to get more than belongs 
to it, but the foreign children need English as much as 
anything and might as well be taught right. If a teacher 
corrects every mistake she sees, she may be sure that many 
have escaped her and need not worry for fear of over- 
thoroughness. We need to know how to talk. We are 
judged by our control of the English language more than 
by any other single accomplishment. 

Arousing interest and watchfulness. Quite early in 
their school life children may be trained to watch their 
own speech and that of their companions and to note the 
occurrence of the poorer forms with intent to root them 
out. I have known children in third and fourth grades 
to grow eager to substitute "very" for "awful," to use 
" may " and " can " correctly, and to weed out expressions 
like "we was," "have got," and the like. It seems to 
them a sort of game, and this is the time to establish the 
right form as a habit. 

Exercises to secure correctness. If one watches children's 
mistakes, one sees that they group themselves under com- 
paratively few heads, like double negatives, incorrect tense 
forms, incorrect use of the cases of pronouns, adjectives 
for adverbs, regular plurals of irregular nouns, regular past 
forms of irregular verbs. The teacher, having observed 
carefully and marked the lines of greatest need, should 
plan as many exercises as possible to furnish drill in use 

[145] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

of correct forms, since the only way to accomplish much 
is to have the right expression repeated times enough to 
make it at least as familiar as the incorrect. 

A regular lesson may be given for this drill. In this the 
teacher might distribute small articles to the children and 
ask of each, " What have you ? " The answers " I have a 
book," " I have a pencil," " I have nothing," oft repeated, 
finally will produce an impression, and this may be strength- 
ened by effort on the teacher's part to make the pupil 
wish to speak correctly. 

There are many stories, liked by children, whose repro- 
duction will furnish drill on needed forms. " The Three 
Bears " may serve to fix " been," " eaten," " broken," and 
words ending in ing\ and many stories give a chance for 
repeated use of the past tense of verbs like " see," " say," 
"do," "go," and others that are frequently incorrectly used. 

Language games give an excellent opportunity for this 
work. A little ingenuity will produce many of these, which 
may be used over and over. A child may describe another 
and the rest may guess who it is, the leader answering, 
" No, it is not he " or "Yes, it is she." Drill on "saw" and 
" have seen" may be given by showing several objects and 
asking of each child, " What did you see ? " or " What 
have you seen ? " In another good game the teacher or 
a pupil gives the present tense of a verb and the one 
called upon gives the past. This may be varied by having 
a sentence given instead of the verb alone. An attractive 
drill for past forms may be found in the " What did you 
do ? " game. The pupils, asked the question one after an- 
other, must answer quickly, " I brought some wood," " I 
caught some fish," " I blew a horn," " I threw a ball," or 

[146] 



LANGUAGE 

any similar sentence. Language games may be multiplied 
indefinitely and never cease to give pleasure, as well as 
drill in use of correct forms. 

Various forms of expression. Any form of expression 
increases the power for general expression. Drawing, cut- 
ting, paper folding, modeling, making, acting, have an 
important part and should be employed in turn. Every 
lesson should have language for its secondary aim, and if 
this idea were well carried out there might be less need 
of lessons called language lessons only. 

Written language work with lower grades. Written 
language work is impossible to any degree in the first 
grade, unnecessary and not practical in the second. The 
children have not grasped the vehicle of expression suf- 
ficiently so that they have any thought for what they are 
saying. A little copying or dictation or work such as may 
be taken in connection with the writing or spelling is, at 
most, all that should be allowed. Even in the third grade, 
writing as a means of expression is not easy, but certain 
exercises may be taken. Writing over and over some of 
the expressions habitually incorrect, — such as have been 
mentioned above, — very simple descriptions in response 
to questions or to use certain words in connection with a 
picture, a brief reproduction of a very simple story, put- 
ting together nouns, adjectives, and verbs to form correct 
groupings, many exercises like these, may be employed 
with profit. 

Work with older children. Even with older classes the 
oral work should be in excess of the written, though more 
and more writing may be called for. The order should be 
free writing first, correct writing later, as for the oral work. 

[M7] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

A child should never be called upon to write until he has 
some ideas. Objects of nature, the history or geography 
or reading lesson, may furnish the starting point. Many 
language books suggest subjects for study taken from 
nature, art, literature, and the teacher should cull freely 
from these and find others in the lessons that come up 
day by day. 

Much of the written work may take the form of letters, 
and the teacher should try to develop the power to write a 
neat letter in which the pupil says what he wants to say, 
connectedly and simply. The children may also write 
original stories or imaginary descriptions, but work for 
which material is provided is by far the best. 

Pupils may be helped in their writing by questions or 
outlines, though what is called free writing should never 
be omitted. Much oral work, helpful for writing, may be 
done in preparation of outlines, study of paragraphs, mak- 
ing of topics, and discussion of typical papers. Corrected 
papers may be copied, but too much copying is harmful, 
and when she employs it, the teacher should satisfy herself 
that it is accomplishing the improvement sought. In after 
life not much time is given to copying written material, 
and the point to be aimed at is the making a fairly pre- 
sentable paper at the first draft. Training a child to go 
over his paper by himself with a definite aim for im- 
provement is better than too great dependence upon the 
copying idea. 

Work leading to technical grammar. Technical gram- 
mar should be saved for higher grades, yet certain things 
that a child needs for daily use must be classed under the 
head of grammar, so we must have some work with the 

[148] 



LANGUAGE 

side of language that leads to grammar as well as with 
the side that leads to composition. Drill should be given 
on the parts of a sentence, on parts of speech, comparison 
of adjectives, parts of verbs. Much of this can be taught 
incidentally, and much of it should be taken in the form 
of games, contests, and the like. 

Technical grammar. In the higher elementary grades 
some work has still to be done in grammar, though we are 
outgrowing the notion that a child must have mastered all 
its intricacies before the high school. Technical grammar 
is, in fact, ceasing to be an elementary school study. The 
children are not at the age when the interest and ability 
for mastering the difficulties of grammar are as promi- 
nent as they will be later, and most of what is needed 
may be acquired through the language work. If it is 
retained in a grammar-school course, the work should 
be confined to recognition of parts of speech with their 
simpler properties, classifications, and relations ; a speak- 
ing acquaintance with phrases and clauses and their work ; 
and the analysis of easy sentences. Having an idea of the 
value of language — with the habit of looking and think- 
ing carefully before stating language facts — should count 
as a fair degree of merit in estimating a student's ability 
in English grammar, at high-school entrance. 

In teaching the various steps in such work in grammar 
as is retained, all new things should be approached, as in 
arithmetic, concretely by illustration ; then should come the 
general idea, then the application. These steps should be 
followed not only in taking the subjects for the first time but 
on later approach, when the children are more mature and 
better able to discriminate and generalize. The application 

[H9] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

should be frequent and strongly made and should not be 
confined to work presented in class. Class work should 
in some way accomplish the end of making the pupil feel 
that the rules and principles taken in class do not cease to 
exist when that class is excused, yet a teacher should not 
be too exacting regarding knowledge of grammar, nor too 
discouraged or impatient if the child seems dull. Power 
for abstract logical reasoning comes late. A child is so 
occupied physically that he lacks force for decisive work 
at the age of the eighth or ninth grade, and his answers 
are more often careless than ignorant. A noun is so un- 
like a verb that when a pupil thinks " noun " and says 
" verb " he seems uncommonly stupid. If grammar must 
be had while children are immature, the pupil should at 
least be judged by what he is on his best day rather than 
by what he is on his worst. 

It remains to treat of three subjects for formal language 
lessons, to be used with all grades, — the picture, the poem, 
and the story. 

REFERENCES 

Arnold. With Pencil and Pen. Ginn and Company. 

Barbour. Teaching of English Grammar: History and Method. 

Ginn and Company. 
Bryce and Spaulding. Aldine Language Books. Newson & 

Company. 
Bryce and Spaulding. Manual for Teachers, for Aldine Language 

Books. Newson & Company. 
Charters. Teaching the Common Branches. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. 
Cooley. Language Lessons from Literature. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. 
King. Language Games. Educational Publishing Company. 

[I50] 



LANGUAGE 

Maxwell, Johnston, and Barnum. Speaking and Writing. 
American Book Company. 

Perdue. Language through Nature, Literature, and Art. Rand 
McNally & Company. 

Southworth and Goddard. Elements of Composition and Gram- 
mar. Benj. H. Sanborn & Co. 

Thompson. Minimum Essentials (Language). Ginn and Company. 



[151] 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PICTURE 

Introduction. The picture deserves treatment under 
three heads — Drawing, where it appears as a work of 
art ; Apparatus, in which it figures in a most important 
role, since it furnishes such an easy and valuable means 
for illustration and explanation ; and Language, since it 
presents such good material to serve as subjects for lessons. 
It is in its relation to language chiefly that it is considered 
in this chapter, though reference may be made to its place 
in other lines. 

Treatment. Many language lessons may center about 
a picture. The lesson may include the study of the picture 
as a work of art or may deal more particularly with the 
story it has to tell. In such study the children should be 
made to talk freely, and their English should be carefully 
corrected. Direct attempts at composition may be made in 
connection with this work. A picture may be merely de- 
scribed and talked about, or it may be made the basis of 
an imaginary story. With little children, the first is the 
more customary treatment. The teacher should try to lead 
them from a mere enumeration of the things they see in 
the picture to a connected statement of the relation of the 
things to each other. " I see a man," " I see a horse," 
should be changed to, " In the picture is a man who is 
putting a shoe on a horse. He holds one of the horse's 

[152] 



THE PICTURE 

feet up to put on the shoe." Gradually the child will be- 
come able to give a connected and vivid description of 
anything seen either in a picture or elsewhere. 

It becomes plain that the best picture for language pur- 
poses is one that contains a story. This is true, no matter 
how it is to be treated. Many pictures do not contain 
stories, but many of the best run over with suggestion. 
As the child gets older he may be trained to make up 
rather pretty or virile stories about the pictures presented. 
He may name the people, imagine adventures, and add 
the help of his creative imagination to the development of 
his observation and expression. Much may be done to 
train a child's ethical sense and feeling for the beautiful 
as a sort of by-product of the English lesson — though 
the English should be made the by-product. 

Sources. Though care is needed in the selection of 
pictures, they are not difficult to obtain. Those hung on 
the walls for decoration should form the subjects of lessons, 
since the pupil gazes at them day after day, and his appre- 
ciation of them may be hastened by a study of them under 
the guidance of the teacher. For class work many small 
ones are obtainable. The Brown and Perry companies 
have done real service in presenting cheap copies of good 
pictures. Illustrations from magazines are often exactly 
what is needed, and some of the advertising pictures, par- 
ticularly those of the soaps and cereals, are attractive and 
made by good illustrators. Calendars that furnish good pic- 
tures are often to be found. If a teacher keeps always on 
the watch and has high ideals which she turns upon low 
places, she may get material enough. The children's joy 
will be abundant pay for the exertion. In one school, where 

[153] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

frequent lessons are given upon bunches of pictures, which 
the children look at and express opinions about in free 
English which the teacher aims to make correct, the little 
hands grasp the passing picture and hold it for a last, fond 
look. Funny things bring smiles of appreciation. Con- 
demnation as well as praise is freely bestowed, and the 
children are growing into a knowledge and taste that scorn 
the Sunday comic supplement, and, in gradually improving 
English, they express love for the good. 

Use in connection with written work. In addition to 
oral work in class, pictures may help greatly in connection 
with the written work of the pupils. The making of book- 
lets has grown into much prominence in many schools. 
These booklets may contain a single poem or reproduced 
story, or specimens of the work of an entire term or year 
may be included. Good pictures in black and white or in 
color may be cut from various sources and mounted to 
illustrate the work or decorate the covers. In the same 
way any written paper of a pupil may be illustrated or 
adorned by use of larger or smaller pictures. The thought- 
ful teacher will think of many ways in which the picture 
may contribute to the language development. 

REFERENCES 

Cyr. Graded Art Readers. Ginn and Company. 
Hoyt. The World's Painters and their Pictures. Ginn and Company. 
Pictures. Perry Pictures Company, Boston. 
Pictures. G. P. Brown, Beverly, Mass. 

Wilson. Picture Study in Elementary Grades. The Macmillan 
Company. 



[154] 



CHAPTER XV 

THE POEM 

Value of poem study. All literature consists mainly of 
poems and stories. She who teaches familiarity with good 
poems and appreciation of them has done much to widen 
the child's horizon, furnish pleasure for dull moments, 
create an appreciation of the beauties of nature, develop 
the ethical sense, and supply a means of comfort in hours 
of trouble. No child, taken young enough, can fail to be 
trained to a fondness for poetry. Poems should not be re- 
garded as frills. They are not. They directly teach many 
things ; they occupy the time and thought of many of our 
greatest scholars ; they are of more importance than a 
large number of our so-called practical subjects. From the 
standpoint of English study they do a great deal to broaden 
a child's vocabulary, to increase his knowledge of arrange- 
ment of words, his pleasure in their harmony, and his 
understanding of grammatical constructions. The poem 
may be taken in many places in the school program, but 
there is no logical reason why one may not let it occupy 
certain of the periods directly assigned to language lessons. 

Selection and sources. The teacher should be guided in 
her selection by the needs and tastes of her class. She 
who tries to arouse a class of hardy, lusty boys to an in- 
terest in poetry through one of Alice Cary's poems is 
making a mistake and will defeat her own ends. They 

[155] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

should be given "The Cloud," " Sheridan's Ride," "Song 
of Marion's Men," "A Song of the Sea," "A Christmas 
Carmen," " One Hoss Shay," something with rhythm, 
swing, and dash that will take the boys off their feet, 
or something to touch their sense of humor. Often the 
roughest boys, after they are trained a little, will have the 
keenest appreciation of the simple, gentle, and beautiful. 
Usually the teacher does best work with that which she 
herself likes, but she may grow to like something that did 
not at first appeal to her. 

The subjects being studied, the time of year, and many 
such things should be taken into consideration, since in- 
creased interest is often aroused in this way, but a poem 
should never be taught for the single reason that it corre- 
lates with the work. No rule can be given for suitability 
to age. Some poems are good for little children, others 
for larger ones, many seem suited to all ages. No harm is 
done if pupils sometimes learn a poem a little beyond 
them. They will grow to greater appreciation instead of 
tiring of it. Several short poems will accomplish more 
than one very long one. Children like variety, and weary 
of a really beautiful thing if it is too long continued. 
Many of the longer poems should be read to the children, 
however, and many more suggested for out-of-school read- 
ing or learning. 

Usually the standard poets will contribute all that are 
necessary. Selection may be made from Longfellow, Tenny- 
son, Whittier, Bryant, Wordsworth, Field, Stevenson, Jack- 
son, and Larcom and countless others. There are many 
excellent collections, like " Open Sesame," " Nature in 
Verse," " Poetry of the Seasons," " Land of Song," 

[156] 



THE POEM 

" Poems Every Child Should Know," and the teacher 
would do well to get access to as many of these as possi- 
ble. School readers and language books present some ex- 
cellent material. Many things may be culled from papers 
and magazines, but these sources present some less valu- 
able poems and so should be scanned with care. 

The best book for the teacher is her own poetry book — 
a blank book of considerable breadth, to accommodate the 
lines, but not too large to handle easily. In this may be 
copied the poems that please her. Such a book soon grows 
to be dearer to a teacher than the best volume ever pub- 
lished. It takes little room, may be always at hand, and 
may be filled in odd moments. 

Preparation for teaching. The poem once selected, the 
next thing is to prepare one's self to teach it. The first 
step is to learn the poem. This gives the teacher greater 
appreciation of its merits, makes her feel it more. It 
leaves her free to watch the class^ during the teaching, 
and so brings her into better harmony with them. It adds 
to her dignity and power, makes her seem superior to the 
learners. It also acquaints her beforehand with the diffi- 
culties, so that she may the better meet them. The rest 
of her work of preparation is to think out ways of explana- 
tion of words and phrases and to get her preparatory dis- 
cussion in order. The purpose of such discussion is to get 
her class into the mood for learning and produce a sym- 
pathetic state of mind, and it may be done in as many 
different ways as there are poems. 

The teaching. When the teaching time comes, the work 
should be introduced by this discussion to secure sym- 
pathy. Then the poem should be repeated by the teacher, 

[157] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

usually the whole of it, though if it is exciting and has a 
story in it, giving it stanza by stanza may be the best way. 
This repetition being over, and any resulting discussion, 
the teacher may say the first stanza again, then discuss it 
for meanings — the purpose being not to pick it to pieces 
unduly but to surely comprehend it. Then it may be said 
again by teacher, then by teacher and class as many times 
as is necessary for learning. As the children's voices grow 
more assured the teacher's should grow less and less promi- 
nent, until they are saying it by themselves. This stanza 
should be repeated until surely known, then the second 
should be taught independently. At its close the two may 
be said together. With the youngest children, the poem 
may have to be taught a line or two at a time instead of 
by stanzas. It is to be remembered that the first object in 
all poem study is to train the child to feel and love the 
beautiful in literature, so a poem should never be so over- 
analyzed as to lose sight of this aim. Many poems should 
be presented to the pupils with no analytical study what- 
ever, but those selected for this use should be simple 
enough for the children to understand as a whole. 

Recently, interesting results have been obtained by teach- 
ing poems as wholes, the entire poem being repeated over 
and over, and the pupils, as rapidly as they are able, join- 
ing with the teacher in the repetition. 

Often it is well to let the children learn poems by pre- 
senting them to the eye as well as the ear. The results 
are quicker, and longer poems may be handled in this way. 
They may be presented on the blackboard, or use may be 
made of the brown-paper chart and rubber pen or of the 
stamping outfit for printing. 

[158] 



THE POEM 

Reproduction. It is a good idea to have the class repro- 
duce the poem in writing if the children are old enough. 
This helps to fix the words, furnishes drill in writing poetry 
correctly, and often uncovers wrong interpretation to the 
teacher's eyes. With younger classes, if the teaching has 
been through the ear alone, the last word of each line may 
be put upon the board as a guide in writing. All words 
which might prove troublesome should be placed upon 
the board in class, though they may be erased before the 
writing by the children if it seems best. 

Manner of reciting. The voice of the class should not 
be too loud. Poetry often needs strength, but more fre- 
quently it is feeling that is lacking. A loud voice disturbs 
the other pupils, and sweeter tones are usually what is 
needed. Much attention should be given to expression. 
The old-time concert reading in schools may be replaced 
by concert repetition of poems and all the good result- 
ing from such reading be obtained in this way. Concert 
recitation is usually better for poem work than individual 
repetition. Even if all children do not get the poem 
learned equally well, the feeling is there, which is the 
main thing. 

The teacher's chief aim in poetry study should be to 
make the children love poetry, but there should be sec- 
ondary aims, looking toward growth in general knowledge 
and the development of good English. The following 
poem has been selected for illustration. It is used by per- 
mission of the author, Mrs. Mary Austin, and of the 
Century Company, publishers of St. Nicholas, in which 
the poem appeared. Thanks are here extended for the 
privilege. 

[159] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP 

The red deer loves the chaparral, 

The hawk the wind-rocked pine, 

The ouzel haunts the rills that race 

The canon's steep incline ; 

But the wild sheep from the battered rocks, 

Sure foot and fleet of limb, 

Gets up to see the stars go by 

Along the mountain rim. 

For him the sky-built battlements, 
For him the cliff and scar, 
For him the deep-walled chasms 
Where the roaring rivers are ; 
The gentian-flowered meadowlands, 
The tamarack slope and crest, 
Above the eagle's screaming brood, 
Above the wild wolf's quest. 

When in the riot of the storms 

The snow-flowers blossom fair, 

The cattle get them to the plain, 

The howlers to the lair, 

The shepherd tends his foolish flocks 

Along the mountain's hem ; 

But free and far the wild sheep are, 

And God doth shepherd them. 

Mary Austin, SI. Nicholas, September, 1900 

This might be introduced in several ways — by talk of 
the different haunts of animals and why they like to live 
in those places, or by a discussion of the mountains, and 
the animals and various phenomena one might find there, 
or through any such conversation to get the child into the 
right mood. 

The poem calls for different voice, from the merely de- 
scriptive at first to the full tones of the second stanza and 

[160] 



THE POEM 

the reverent tone of the end. It is full of feeling and vigor. 
It well illustrates the power of poems to increase general 
information and cultivate thought and appreciation. 

The following are suggestive questions : 

Do you know the meaning of "chaparral" or why the red 
deer loves it ? Can you see the close, dark shelter and feel 
the perfect motion of that wind-rocked pine ? What is an 
ouzel ? What does " to haunt " mean ? What is a rill ? 
Why does the ouzel haunt the rills ? What is a canon ? 
Where in a canon are the rills found ? Why does the poet 
say they " race " the incline ? Why is the word " incline " 
fitting ? What do you know of the Rocky Mountain sheep ? 
Is it different from the Rocky Mountain goat we hear 
about, or are the terms simply used carelessly ? Why are 
the rocks called " battered " ? What does " sure foot and 
fleet of limb " have to do with the sheep's selection of his 
home ? Where does the sheep sleep ? Why are the stars 
spoken of as " going by " ? What is the mountain rim ? 
What is the mountain hem ? Why are these good terms ? 
How should you feel to be in the sheep's place at night, 
watching the sky and the stars and feeling safe ? 

Why are the rocks spoken of as " battlements " ? Why 
"sky-built"? What is a cliff ? What is a scar? What is a 
chasm? What made those "deep-walled chasms " ? Where 
are the " roaring rivers " ? What makes them roar ? What 
have the rills before spoken of to do with the rivers ? Did 
you know there were " gentian-flowered meadowlands " in 
this locality ? Why the tamarack rather than the elm and 
maple ? What is a crest ? Had you thought of the sheep 
as being above the eagle's nest ? Why "screaming brood " ? 
What is a quest ? Why is the sheep safe from the wolf's 

[161] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

quest ? What difference is there in the animals found at 
different mountain heights ? 

Why "riot of the storms" ? Is it meant that the snow- 
flakes are like stars, or are there really " snow-flowers " ? 
Why do the cattle go to the plain in a storm ? What are 
" howlers " ? What is a lair ? Why do the sheep stay on 
the mountain height in the storm ? What does " foolish " 
mean in this connection ? Do you feel a thrill of freedom 
at " free and far the wild sheep are " ? Could anything 
leave a more beautiful, uplifting, moral thought than the 
final line — "And God doth shepherd them " ? 

Has not the child, through such a poem as this, gained 
in knowledge of real things ? Has he not acquired new 
words and increased his power and desire to use them 
fittingly and expressively ? Is not his moral nature brought 
somewhat nearer that perfection for which we aim as our 
highest goal in all instruction ? This poem is one among 
many. There is no limit to what we may teach through 
poem study. Shall we not give to it its proper place in 
school work ? 

In the following list may be found some of the many 
good poems for school use : 

The Rock-a-By Lady (Field), in Young and Field's " Third Reader." 
What does Little Birdie Say ? (Tennyson), in Jones's " Second 

Reader." 
My Bed is a Boat (Stevenson), in Young and Field's " Third Reader." 
Spring (Thaxter), in Young and Field's " Third Reader." 
Suppose (Cary), in Wade and Sylvester's " Third Reader." 
Winter, from the German, in Lovejoy's " Poetry of the Seasons." 
The Child's World, in Lovejoy's " Poetry of the Seasons." 
Hide and Seek (Sherman), in Lovejoy's " Nature in Verse." 
The Song of the Bee (Douglass), in Lovejoy's " Nature in Verse." 

[162] 



THE POEM 

Violets (Moultrie), in Blodgett's "Third Reader" and in "Open 

Sesame." 
The Bluebird (Miller), in Blodgett's " Third Reader." 
Winter in the Sierras (Austin), in St. Nicholas, December, 1901. 
My Shadow (Stevenson), in Young and Field's " Third Reader." 
A Gaelic Cradle Song, in Shute's " Land of Song," Volume I. 
The Land of Story Books (Stevenson). 

Seven Times One (Ingelow), in Young and Field's "Third Reader." 
The Night Wind (Field). 

One, Two, Three (Bunner), in Young and Field's " Third Reader." 
The Lost Doll (Kingsley), in Wade and Sylvester's "Third Reader." 
Japanese Lullaby (Field). 

The Flag (Macy), in Elson's " Grammar School Reader." 
March (Wordsworth). 

September (Jackson), in Young and Field's " Fourth Reader." 
October's Bright Blue Weather (Jackson). 
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (Field), in Young and Field's " Third 

Reader." 
Ho, for Slumberland (Rexford), in " Nature in Verse." 
Columbus (Miller), in " Poems of American History " (Stevenson). 
A Little Breeze, in " Normal Third Reader." 
The Year 's at the Spring, from " Pippa Passes " (Browning). 
The Village Blacksmith (Longfellow). 
The Brook (Tennyson), in Jones's " Fourth Reader." 
Whichever Way the Wind doth Blow (Mason), in Bartlett's " First 

Steps in English." 
A Child's Thought of God (Mrs. Browning), in Wade and Sylvester's 

" Fourth Reader." 
The Bluebird (Rexford), in Lovejoy's " Poetry of the Seasons." 
The Wind and the Moon (Macdonald), in Cyr's " Fourth Reader." 
Robert of Lincoln (Bryant), in Young and Field's " Fourth Reader." 
At Thanksgiving (Larcom). 
The Children's Hour (Longfellow). 
Children (Longfellow). 
Song of Marion's Men (Bryant), in Gayley and Flaherty's " Poetry 

of the People." 
The Sandpiper (Thaxter), in Young and Field's " Fourth Reader." 
The Landing of the Pilgrims (Hemans), in Cyr's "Third Reader." 

[163] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

The Legend of the Maple (Ogden), in Stone and Fickett's " Trees 

in Prose and Poetry." 
The Rocky Mountain Sheep (Austin), in Si. Nicholas, September, 

1900. 
A Song of the Sea (Procter), in " Land of Song," Volume II. 
The Arrow and the Song (Longfellow). 
One Butterfly (Larcom). 
Barbara Frietchie (Whittier), in Gayley and Flaherty's " Poetry of 

the People." 
The Mayflowers (Whittier). 

The Bugle Song (Tennyson), in Cyr's " Fourth Reader." 
Down to Sleep (Jackson). 
The Builders (Longfellow). 
The Fishermen (Whittier). 
Paul Revere's Ride (Longfellow). 
Just be Glad (Riley). 

Concord Hymn (Emerson), in Jones's " Fourth Reader." 
Warren's Address (Pierpont), in Hyde's " School Speaker and 

Reader." 
The Corn Song (Whittier). 
Home-Thoughts from Abroad (Browning). 
The Trailing Arbutus (Whittier). 
The Coast Guard (Miller), in Cyr's " Fourth Reader." 
The King (Riley). 
The Three Kings (Longfellow). 
Centennial Hymn (Whittier), in Gayley and Flaherty's " Poetry of 

the People." 
Opportunity (Sill), in Jones's " Fifth Reader." 
Violets (Larcom). 
Our State (Whittier). 
The Brook and the Wave (Longfellow). 
Daffodils (Wordsworth), in Blodgett's " Fifth Reader." 
Autumn (Longfellow). 

Recessional (Kipling), in Cyr's " Fifth Reader." 
Ring out, Wild Bells (Tennyson), in Bellamy and Goodwin's " Open 

Sesame," Volume III. 
The Chambered Nautilus (Holmes), in Jones's " Fifth Reader." 
Spring (Timrod), in Cyr's " Fourth Reader." 

[164] 



THE POEM 

The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson), in Jones's " Fifth 

Reader." 
Abraham Lincoln (Bryant), in Gayley and Flaherty's " Poetry of the 

People." 
Laus Deo (Whittier). 

The Christmas Silence (Deland), in Lovejoy's " Nature in Verse." 
The Shepherds in Judea (Austin), in St. Nicholas, December, 1 900. 
Christmas Bells (Longfellow). 
A Christmas Carmen (Whittier). 
The Birth of Christ (Tennyson), in Bellamy and Goodwin's " Open 

Sesame," Volume III. 
A Christmas Carol (Mulock), in Bellamy and Goodwin's " Open 

Sesame," Volume I. 
O Little Town of Bethlehem (Brooks), in any church hymnal. 
Christ and the Little Ones (Gill), in Whittier's " Child Life." 
The Cloud (Shelley). 
Spring in the Valley (Austin), in St. Nicholas, May, 1903. 

REFERENCES 

Approved Selections for Supplementary Reading and Memorizing. 
Eight small volumes. Hinds, Noble & Eldridge. 

Bellamy and Goodwin. Open Sesame, Volumes I— III. Ginn and 
Company. 

Burt. Poems Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, Page & 
Company. 

Gayley and Flaherty. Poetry of the People. Ginn and Company. 

Hazard. Three Years with the Poets. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Hyde. School Speaker and Reader. Ginn and Company. 

Lovejoy. Nature in Verse. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

Lovejoy. Poetry of the Seasons. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

Montgomery. Heroic Ballads. Ginn and Company. 

Palgrave. Golden Treasury. Various publishers. 

Shute. Land of Song, Volumes I and II. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

Stevenson. Poems of American History. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. 

Whittier. Child Life in Poetry. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Williams and Foster. Selections for Memorizing. Ginn and 
Company. 

[165] 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE STORY 

Importance. The story should have an important place 
in school work, as its value can hardly be overestimated. 
By means of it much information and inspiration may be 
furnished. It may serve as a marked stimulus for general 
reading ; it may increase the pupil's power of expression ; 
and it is very effective as a means of elevating ideals, 
while beyond most subjects it furnishes pleasure. 

Kinds of stories. There are, of course, many kinds of 
stories equally good, and there should be variety of selec- 
tion. Starting with those of animal and child life, which 
appeal so strongly to the very little child, one may arrange 
a gradation to meet the needs and tastes of pupils through 
the whole school course. The wonder and fairy story, the 
folk story, myth, and fable may be drawn upon in turn, to 
acquaint the child with nature's truths, ancient beliefs, or 
moral lessons. The nonsense story and information story 
will find a place, and biography often furnishes the highest 
uplift for adolescent boys and girls. 

Sources. The whole field of literature may be drawn 
upon for the right materials. There are many collections 
of stories selected by people well fitted for the task, though 
many teachers prefer to do their own searching, using more 
original sources. There are collections of fairy stories, 
fables, and myths in great number, and these furnish an 

[166] 



THE STORY 

important source of supply for the young teacher. School 
readers and language books give many of the well-known 
classics, but it is better not to use those from the children's 
regular readers. The teacher who can have only a few 
books may find her need met through some of the charm- 
ing collections of general stories, like Sarah Cone Bryant's 
" How to Tell Stories to Children," and " Stories to Tell 
to Children." The latter contains more stories ; the other, 
together with quite a number of excellent ones, gives some 
very helpful directions for using them. The series by Eva 
March Tappan, The Children's Hour, contains a large 
number of well-selected stories, carefully grouped as to 
subjects and age. 

Characteristics of a good story. One usually has to find 
a good story through an intuitive feeling for its fitness, 
but there are certain characteristics which a story should 
possess if it is to appeal to children. There needs to be a 
strong central thought, and in the telling this thought 
should be clearly and strongly emphasized, care being used 
that it is not so loaded with details as to be obscured. Any 
over-embellishment or secondary plots which weaken the 
central idea should be omitted in the telling. There should 
be life and movement. Some interesting thing should be 
happening all the time. The events should also be within 
the experience and interest of the listener, and should not 
need to be much broken up by explanations. Repetition 
is an attraction too, adding an element of expectancy 
and recognition which the child, particularly the little 
child, enjoys. 

Manner of treating. Generally a story should be told. 
The teacher gets more into harmony with it, more in touch 

[167] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

with the class. She is free to see how the children are 
taking it, to bring it home vividly, to use herself as a factor 
in the enjoyment. To be told, it must first.be prepared. 
Preparation to tell does not mean learning to recite it. A 
recited story differs little from a read one. Stories may be 
said to children dramatically with extremely good effect, 
and this way should be used, but the ordinary teacher 
telling a memorized story makes it sound very mechanical 
and uninteresting. 

The first step in preparation to tell a story means get- 
ting thoroughly into the spirit of it, getting to like it better, 
finding the heart of it — the central thought, of which men- 
tion has been made. After this, one has to pick up the 
ideas which best serve to increase the effect of the main 
points, and think how to arrange and express them. Parts 
need to be learned word for word. In some cases draw- 
ings, pictures, or illustrative objects add more attractive- 
ness. If so, these need to be looked out for while the 
story is being prepared. 

Though sometimes it is well to ask the class what they 
think happened next, most stories should be told con- 
nectedly. The telling should be practiced aloud, if possible, 
for the discovery of defects in language, arrangement, or 
style of presenting. This also helps the teacher to lose fear 
of her own voice. If she can tell a story well under these 
preliminary conditions, she may surely make a success of 
it when the magnetism of the class presence is added. 

Oral reproduction. Often it is well to have the story 
reproduced in one or more ways. The most usual way is 
to have it done orally. It is better to have it told in con- 
nected form by the child or children, but questions should 

[168] 



THE STORY 

be employed when the pupil loses the thread. To get the 
child to reproduce in smooth, correct English is one object 
of story-telling. Fresh from hearing the story well told, 
he is apt to use some of the language he heard and so 
make it partly his. When he talks about what he thinks 
of the story, he uses his own less correct forms. These 
should be corrected, but the corrections should not become 
prominent enough to be upsetting. Listening to beautiful 
English is a factor in acquiring it, and that means may be 
relied upon largely in this work, though the other should 
be employed also, wisely. Not all stories should be repro- 
duced, but reproduction is valuable. 

Written reproduction. Written reproduction may be 
used, particularly with older children. The story itself will 
furnish material for writing, and in connection with it 
many things regarding arrangement, correct expression, 
good judgment as to important parts, may be taught. 
Many attractive papers may be made if the children are 
encouraged to illustrate with drawings, or pictures selected 
from other sources. 

Other forms of reproduction. Often with little children 
the only reproduction may be a series of pictures, drawn 
or cut, or the constructing of objects to illustrate the points 
brought out. Children take great delight in such work. 
It is a good plan to have a table equipped with sand and 
another fitted with scissors, cardboard, paints, colored 
pencils, and a varied working outfit, where may be con- 
structed endless continued stories, illustrative of language 
and other work. 

Dramatizing. Reference has been made already to one 
of the best forms of reproduction — dramatizing. Too 

[169] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

great emphasis cannot be laid upon such' work. Its im- 
portance in developing powers of expression, freedom, 
ingenuity — which is creative imagination and executive 
ability — and in establishing a good spirit or moral tone is 
unsurpassed. Simple little helps in the line of stage set- 
tings and costumes may be used if the children themselves 
think them up, but often imagination is better than objects. 
The teacher should be sure that the pupils do the plan- 
ning, not herself, though she may have to plan at first to 
show them how. Great care should be used that the talk- 
ing and acting are spontaneous, not cut and dried before- 
hand. To repeat and act a memorized story with parts all 
laid out and every change arranged is an excellent exer- 
cise, yet it has not one tenth the value that on-the-spot 
acting and talking have. 

Reading stories. Though the told story is usually better 
for language lessons, there is value also in stories read. 
When the language is particularly beautiful or fitting, it 
is better to read the story. Sometimes reading may be 
used for longer stories or, occasionally, when the teacher is 
pressed for time. The plan of having many stories told 
and many others read is the ideal one, and the teacher 
should be careful never to spoil the story in the telling by 
using the English language carelessly, nor in the reading 
through lack of the best work of which she is capable. 

One of the great purposes of the use of stories in school 
is to train the children to a familiarity with, appreciation 
of, and fondness for good literature — one of the worthiest 
aims of education. Not only by her stories but by her 
whole attitude, her suggestions for home reading, her ap- 
proval of reports of good outside reading, by opportunities 

[170] 



THE STORY 

furnished and pathways opened, the teacher may so train 
the pupil that the dime novel and the trashy romance may 
sink naturally to their proper place, and the child's trained 
taste cause him to seek the best in the line of stories, to 
become an enthusiast for good literature. 

The following list gives titles and sources of some stories 
that have been tested in many schools : 

Chicken Little, in Wiltse's " Folklore Stories and Proverbs." 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff, in Lansing's " Rhymes and Stories." 

Three Little Pigs, in Lansing's " Rhymes and Stories." 

The Three Bears, in Wiltse's " Folklore Stories and Proverbs." 

The Old Woman and her Pig, in " The McCloskey Primer." 

The Lion and the Mouse, in Wiltse's" Folklore Stories and Proverbs." 

The Crow and the Pitcher, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 

The Little Pig Brother, in Bryant's " How to Tell Stories to Children." 

Belling the Cat, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, in Stickney's "yEsop's 

Fables." 
The Cat and the Parrot, in Bryant's " How to Tell Stories to Children." 
The Fox and the Crow, in Jones's " Third Reader." 
The Fox and the Grapes, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 
The Hare and the Tortoise, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 
The Little Fir Tree, in Stickney's " Andersen's Fairy Tales " (First 

Series). 
Little Red Riding Hood, in Lansing's " Rhymes and Stories." 
The Fox and the Stork, in Young and Field's " Literary Readers," 

Book Four. 
The Little Red Hen, in Lansing's " Rhymes and Stories." 
The Dog and his Shadow, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 
The Jackal and the Lion, in Bryant's " Stories to Tell to Children." 
Little Pink Rose, in Bryant's " Stories to Tell to Children." 
The Monkey and the Chestnuts, in Serf's "In Fableland." 
Raggylug, in Bryant's " How to Tell Stories to Children." 
The Dog in the Manger, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 
The Bremen Musicians, in " Child Life," Volume II. 
The Elves and the Cobbler, in Lansing's "Fairy Tales," Volume II. 

[171] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

The Gingerbread Man, in Fassett's " Beacon First Reader." 

The Lambikin, in Lansing's " Quaint Old Stories." 

The Little Half Chick, in Fassett's " Beacon First Reader." 

The Wolf and the Kid, in Serl's " In Fableland." 

The Wind and the Sun, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 

The Boy who cried Wolf, in Stickney's 'VEsop's Fables." 

The Tar Baby Story, in Young and Field's " Literary Readers," 

Book Four. 
Cinderella, in Lansing's " Fairy Tales," Volume I. 
The Fisherman and His Wife, in Noyes's " Twilight Stories." 
The Golden Touch, in Dillingham and Emerson's " ' Tell It Again ' 

Stories." 
The Queen Bee, in Wiltse's " Grimm's Fairy Tales," Part I. 
The Little Jackal and the Alligator, in Bryant's " Stories to Tell to 

Children." 
The Pied Piper, in Jones's " Fourth Reader." 
The Goose that laid Golden Eggs, in Stickney's 'VEsop's Fables." 
Puss in Boots, in Lansing's " Fairy Tales," Volume I. 
The Steadfast Tin Soldier, in Stickney's " Andersen's Fairy Tales " 

(First Series). 
The Lark and her Little Ones, in Blodgett's " Second Reader." 
The Moon in the Mill Pond, in Wiltse's " Folklore Stories and 

Proverbs." 
Epaminondas, in Bryant's " Stories to Tell to Children." 
The Frog and the Ox, in Stickney's '^Esop's Fables." 
The Miller, his Son, and the Donkey, in Stickney's "yEsop's Fables." 
Rikki-tikki-tavi (Kipling), in " The First Jungle Book." 
Sleeping Beauty, in Lansing's " Fairy Tales," Volume II. 
Snow White and Rose Red, in Young and Field's " Literary 

Readers," Book Three. 
The Pea Blossom, in Stickney's " Andersen's Fairy Tales " (Second 

Series). 
The Honest Woodman, in Stickney's "VEsop's Fables." 
The Bell of Atri (Longfellow), in Jones's " Fifth Reader." 
The Little Hero of Haarlem, in Richmond's " Second Reader." 
Aladdin, in Lane's " Arabian Nights." 
The Brahman, the Tiger, and the Jackal, in Young and Field's 

" Literary Readers," Book Four. 

[172] 



THE STORY 

The Ugly Duckling, in Young and Field's " Literary Readers," 

Book Three. 
The Legend of Saint Christopher, in " Language Lessons from Lit- 
erature," Book II. 
Rip Van Winkle, in Cyr's " Fourth Reader." 
Ichabod Crane, in Baker and Carpenter's " Language Reader,'' 

Book VI. 
Robert of Sicily, in Bryant's " Stories to Tell to Children." 
The Red Thread of Courage, in Coe's " Fourth Reader." 
The Nightingale, in Blodgett's " Third Reader." 
The Gulls of Salt Lake, in Bryant's " Stories to Tell to Children." 
The Griffin and the Minor Canon (Stockton), in " Fanciful Tales." 
Old Pipes and the Dryad, in Young and Field's " Literary Readers," 

Book Four. 
The Great Stone Face, in Jones's " Fourth Reader." 
The Niirnberg Stove, in Carroll and Brooks's " Fourth Reader." 
Hiawatha (Longfellow) or Hiawatha, the Indian Boy, in Young and 

Field's " Literary Readers," Book Three. 
The Happy Prince, in Keyes's " Stories and Story-Telling." 
Bruce and the Spider, in Lansing's " Patriots and Tyrants." 
King Alfred and the Cakes, in BlaisdelPs " Stories from English 

History." 
King Canute, in Blaisdell's " Stories from English History." 
Richard the Lion-Hearted, in Blaisdell's " Stories from English 

History." 
Beowulf, in Holbrook's " Northland Heroes." 
Hercules, in Francillon's " Gods and Heroes." 
Achilles, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 
Ulysses, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 
Perseus and Andromeda, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 
Pandora, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 
Baucis and Philemon, in Comstock's " Dramatic Version of Greek 

Myths." 
The King of the Winds, in Richmond's " Second Reader." 
Daedalus and Icarus, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 
Hdratius at the Bridge, in Jones's " Fifth Reader." 
Hannibal, in Harding's " Story of Europe." 
Damon and Pythias, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 

[173] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

The Golden Fleece, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 

Apollo, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 

Clytie, in " New Education Reader," Book III. 

The Last Lesson, in Bryant's " How to Tell Stories to Children." 

Joan of Arc, in Lansing's " Patriots and Tyrants." 

William Tell, in Fassett's " Beacon Third Reader." 

Roland, in Lansing's " Page, Esquire, and Knight." 

King Arthur Stories, in Greene's " Legends of King Arthur and his 

Court." 
Norse Myths, like Thor, Balder, and Loki, in Litchfield's " The 

Nine Worlds." 
American History Stories, as those of Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, 

Putnam, Marion, John Paul Jones, Boston Tea Party, Signing the 

Declaration, Making the First Flag. These may be taken from 

any history or historical reader, for example, Blaisdell and Ball's 

" Short Stories from American History." 
The Colors of the Regiment, in " Aldine Fifth Reader." 
The Taking of Quebec, in Cyr's " Fifth Reader." 
The Soldier's Reprieve, in " Aldine Fourth Reader." 
A Golden Deed, in Wade and Sylvester's " Fourth Reader." 
The Rescue of the Garrison, in " Aldine Fourth Reader." 
The Queen's Pardon, in " Aldine Fourth Reader." 
The Perfect Tribute, in Howe's " Fifth Reader." 
Dorothea Lynde Dix, in Buckwalter's " Fourth Reader." 
Waterloo, in Jones's " Fifth Reader." 
A Brave Cabin Boy, in " Aldine Fourth Reader." 
Battle of Bannockburn, in Blodgett's " Fifth Reader." 
Story of Sir William Wallace, in " Selections from Scott's ' Tales of 

a Grandfather.' " 
Exploits of Douglas and Randolph, in " Selections from Scott's ' Tales 

of a Grandfather.' " 
Heroism of a Miner, in Coe's " Heroes of Everyday Life." 
Hugh John and the Scots Grays, in Jones's " Fourth Reader." 
Charles Martel, in Tappan's " European Hero Stories." 
Charlemagne, in Lansing's " Barbarian and Noble." 
John Gutenberg, in .Tappan's " European Hero Stories." 
The Spanish Armada, in Blaisdell-'s " Short Stories from English 

History." 

[174] 



THE STORY 

Doubting Castle and Giant Despair, in Howe's " Fifth Reader." 
The Capture of the Wild Cannon, in " Aldine Sixth Reader." 
Leo, the Slave, in " Aldine Sixth Reader." 
William the Conqueror, in Blaisdell's " Short Stories from English 

History." 
Rollo the Viking, in Lansing's " Barbarian and Noble." 
The Black Prince, in Blaisdell's " Short Stories from English 

History." 
Garibaldi, the Hero of Italy, in Dale's " Heroes and Greathearts." 
Gustavus Adolphus, in Tappan's " European Hero Stories." 
Regulus, in Haaren's " Famous Men of Rome." 
Story of Frithiof, in " Stories of Legendary Heroes." 
The Battle of Marathon, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 
Leonidas at Thermopylae, in Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks." 
How Cincinnatus saved Rome, in Howe's " Fifth Reader." 
The Story of Coriolanus, in Wade and Sylvester's " Fourth Reader." 
Arnold von Winkelried, in Carroll and Brooks's " Fourth Reader." 
The First Grenadier, in Carroll and Brooks's " Fourth Reader." 
The Red Cross Knight and the Saracen, in Baldwin's " Seventh 

Reader." 
Nauhaught, the Deacon (Whittier). 
The Shepherd Girl of Nanterre, in Wade and Sylvester's " Fourth 

Reader." 
Bible Stories, like those of Daniel, Samuel, Moses, Joseph, Samson, 

David, Noah, Esther, The Talents, The Debtor, The Sower, and 

The Good Samaritan, and The Christmas Story. 

The stories here named may be found in many other 
places than those given. Most of the standard ones are 
to be met often in the various school readers and lan- 
guage books. A single source is supplied, that too much 
time may not be wasted in search for one. 



[175] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 



REFERENCES 

Bailey. For the Story-Teller. Milton Bradley Company 

Bailey and Lewis. For the Children's Hour. Milton Bradley 
Company. 

Blaisdell. Stories from English History. Ginn and Company. 

Blaisdell and Ball. Hero Stories from American History. Ginn 
and Company. 

Brown. In Days of Giants. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Bryant. How to Tell Stories to Children. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. 

Bryant. Stories to Tell to Children. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Coe. Heroes of Everyday Life. Ginn and Company. 

Comstock. Dramatic Version of Greek Myths. Ginn and Com- 
pany. 

Dillingham and Emerson. " Tell It Again " Stories. Ginn and 
Company. 

Guerber. Legends of the Middle Ages. American Book Company. 

Guerber. Myths of Greece and Rome. American Book Company. 

Guerber. Myths of Northern Lands. American Book Company. 

Holbrook. Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades. American Book 
Company. 

Johnston and Barnum. Book of Plays for Little Actors. Ameri- 
can Book Company. 

Keyes. Stories and Story-Telling. D. Appleton and Company. 

Knight. Dramatic Reader for Grammar Grades. American Book 
Company. 

Lansing. Mediaeval Builders of the Modern World. 2 volumes. 
Ginn and Company. 

Long. Wood Folk Series. 7 volumes. Ginn and Company. 

MacClintock. Literature in Elementary Schools. The University 
of Chicago Press. 

McGovern. Stories and Poems with Lesson Plans for Primary and 
Intermediate Grades. Educational Publishing Company. 

Noyes. Twilight Stories. Parker P. Simmons. 

Noyes and Ray. Little Plays for Little People. Ginn and Company. 

Radford. King Arthur and his Knights. Rand McNally & Com- 
pany. 

Serl. In Fableland. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

[I 7 6] 



THE STORY 

Shaw. Stories of the Ancient Greeks. Ginn and Company. 
Stevenson. Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. Houghton 

Mifflin Company. 
Stickney. ^Esop's Fables. Ginn and Company. 
Stickney. Andersen's Fairy Tales. 2 volumes. Ginn and Company. 
Stockton. Fanciful Tales. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
Tappan. The Children's Hour. 10 volumes. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. 
Wiggin and Smith. The Story Hour. Houghton Mifflin Company. 
Wilson. Myths of the Red Children. Ginn and Company. 
Wiltse. Folklore Stories and Proverbs. Ginn and Company. 
Wiltse. Grimm's Fairy Tales. 2 volumes. Ginn and Company. 
Wiltse. Hero Folk of Ancient Britain. Ginn and Company. 
Wiltse. The Place of the Story in Early Education. Ginn and 

Company. 
Dramatic Readers mentioned on page 263. 



[w] 



CHAPTER XVII 

GEOGRAPHY 

Importance of subject. No school subject furnishes to 
either teacher or pupils greater opportunity for variety, 
enjoyment, and profit than does geography. A surprising 
number of teachers express themselves as hating and 
dreading it, but it is really no more worthy of either than 
is the dessert that accompanies a good dinner. The hate 
and dread arise from a feeling of the breadth and import- 
ance of the subject and of inability to handle it properly, 
but if one jumps boldly in and proceeds to do one's best, 
its discouraging features furnish the greatest encourage- 
ment. It is so broad, so interesting, so important, that out 
of it good will come even if it does not come very logically. 

Geography was for altogether too many years regarded 
as a memory subject merely, and stress was laid only upon 
location of places. The pupils went through the book and 
reviewed it, without reference to outside reading, with no 
idea of connecting with nature study or language, with 
thought power deadened rather than strengthened, till it is 
no wonder that it seemed hard and unimportant. No subject 
furnishes a broader field for observation and general knowl- 
edge. No subject will develop thinking more if an effort 
is made in that direction. In none is there a greater oppor- 
tunity for interest if the children are encouraged to talk 
freely and ask questions. None can be more illuminated 

[178] 



GEOGRAPHY 

by means of objects, pictures, easily available reading 
matter. All that is needed is for teacher and class to get 
into the right attitude concerning it. 

Preliminary work. Geography proper need not begin 
below the fourth grade, but material contributory to geog- 
raphy may be amassed from the moment the child enters 
school, through the general discussions, the nature study, 
and the language work. The nature lessons with their 
study of plants, minerals, animals, and natural phenomena ; 
the language work with stories of different peoples, animals, 
and occupations ; and those stories illustrative of the work- 
ings of nature may fill the children full of a simple, usable 
knowledge regarding the occupants of the world and their 
relations to each other and with the world materials with 
which they have to deal. 

Early work : oral. When children have been three or 
four years in school they should be given a good course 
in oral geography. This may come preferably at the be- 
ginning of the fourth year, though in rural schools, if it is 
more convenient, fourth- and fifth-grade pupils may well 
take the work together. Some time during the year it 
might be well to read "Our World Reader," though this 
reading should serve to supplement rather than to direct 
the course. If wished, when a combination of fourth and 
fifth grades is made, the reader might be used one year 
and the oral course the next, thus getting a good ground- 
ing in geography without monotonous repetition. 

The work should be development, which is dismaying 
in name only, and the lessons should be founded on the 
material already gained through the nature and language 
lessons and incidental observation and reading. Direct 

[179] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

observation should be employed in connection with the 
daily lessons, and work may well start with the home sec- 
tion and expand naturally to include the world. 

Map making and reading in this connection. A certain 
ability to read and enjoy maps is necessary, and this must be 
based on study of plans and maps. Simple little plans may 
be made of the school building, school grounds, the neigh- 
boring locality, and — if the teacher feels able — of the 
town. These may be drawn on board or paper or constructed 
on sand tray or table. They may be rough or as elaborate 
as the teacher and children wish. Their purpose is largely 
to lead the child to see how things are portrayed in maps. 
This knowledge may be increased by studying a map of 
the town or county, if some home in the community can 
lend it, and by the reading of other maps — all of which 
may be done in a very informal way. The difference between 
a map and a picture must be made plain, and the child must 
get a little idea of drawing to scale. Work of this kind 
should occupy only a few weeks at most. 

Study of surface features. As soon as possible the chil- 
dren should be started on interesting home topics. They 
may learn all the local surface features of land and water — 
hill, plain, valley, cape, peninsula, isthmtts, island, spring, 
brook, river, pond, lake, strait, coast. Whatever it is pos- 
sible to observe should be observed directly. Certain sup- 
plementary work may be done by means of mud pies in 
the school sand pile, or by the sand tray or table. 

As these smaller features are studied, the child's knowl- 
edge may be extended to include the world features, — those 
given above, and also plateau, mountain, bay, sea, ocean, 
basins, systems, tides, zuaves, harbors, coast line, — all 

[180] 



GEOGRAPHY 

those things which may come smoothly to his knowledge in 
oral lessons, through enlarging, diminishing, and putting 
together in new combinations the results of what he has 
seen. Pictures are an inestimable aid in understanding 
such things, but they must be accompanied by explanations 
from the teacher, by free discussion by the class, and by 
as much descriptive reading as possible. 

Order of procedure. For one day's lesson a child may 
observe such surface features as are within reach. He may 
talk about his observations for another lesson. Then he 
may model in the sand what he has seen and the larger 
related type. If, for example, he has seen a hill and valley, 
he may model these, together with mountain and valley, 
mountain system, and mountain range. He may continue 
his work by drawing the various features on board or paper. 
He may look to see them illustrated in pictures that the 
teacher shows, then he may find the same features in other 
pictures, and finally he may learn how they are represented 
on maps and globes. 

Climatic conditions. He must be introduced to climatic 
conditions, but they will prove not strange, since he has 
always observed the weather and, if his school has been 
right, has kept weather records and talked about clouds, 
fog, mist, rain, dew, snow, ice, and hail in connection with 
the appearance of each. From these the teacher should 
lead him to the larger forms that he may not have seen. 
He may learn of evaporation and precipitation ; trace mois- 
ture from the vapor through cloud, fog, and rain. It is not 
difficult. A few experiments, which the teacher may easily 
think out or get acquainted with through books like Ricks's 
" Object Lessons " or many similar ones, will lay open the 

[181] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

whole field. It is not a hard journey for a child's imagina- 
tion from the parched ground during our seasons of drouth 
to the desert places ; from our snow to the snow of the 
Arctic regions ; from our fogs to foggy Newfoundland ; 
from our snow, melting and freezing on roofs, to the Alpine 
or Greenland glaciers ; from our pieces of ice, breaking up 
and sailing down the gutter streams, to the icebergs of the 
colder zones. The child will move breathlessly along the 
geographical current, and the teacher will grow breathless 
too, with ideas and enthusiasm. 

If the pupil be shown by means of a candle the outward 
and inward currents in the room, if he recalls the upward 
heat current from stove and bonfire, he is ready to think 
out the effect of the sun upon the different parts of the 
earth. The candle and the globe or apple will show him 
how constantly the sun shines on the equator ; his bonfire 
suggests the upward current of air ; he sees how air must 
rush in to take the empty place, and is launched upon the 
question of the seasons and the winds. He may make a 
weather vane with a knitting needle, a piece of cork, and 
a paper vane. He may make it work by blowing it. It is 
easy to see that if the wind blows it, it will act in the same 
way. He may be made wildly interested in the destructive 
effects of winds and in the Life-saving Service. Relation 
of winds to rainfall, of rainfall and slopes to drainage, of 
drainage to products and occupations, may all be thought 
out — much better thought out than told or read. 

Relation to man. "What is it all for?" "Why, for 
man." "How does man live? How do the people in this 
locality get a living ? " The child sees speedily that no man 
can live by his own efforts with comfort, that he himself 

[182] 



GEOGRAPHY 

is dependent on a thousand others for what he needs. 
Man needs food, clothing, building material, heat, and 
such things. He cannot get them all by himself, so he does 
what he can, and others also do what they can, and then 
exchange goes on. All the world is engaged in getting 
raw material, as by hunting, fishing, farming, caring for 
flocks and herds, lumbering, mining; or in preparing raw 
materials by manufacture ; or in exchanging raw materials 
and manufactures, which we call commerce. 

The child may start with what his section does in either 
of these lines and spread out from these to the work of 
the world. He will learn why great cities spring up in 
particular places, why other regions are sparsely populated. 
He should make product maps, collect objects to illustrate 
various manufactures, bring in all the pictures touching 
upon these topies. Any teacher might be aroused to en- 
thusiasm by finding how many pictures may be collected 
easily, to show lumbering, mining, wheat raising, cotton 
growth and manufacture, or a hundred other things. Why 
should one " hate and dread " to teach geography, when it 
is so difficult to do it wrongly if one keeps in mind the 
idea of enlarging the child's knowledge of the world, in- 
creasing his interest in it and his thinking power ? 

As an aid in understanding commerce, the pupil should 
learn about roads, bridges, railroads, lakes, canals, rivers, 
ocean steamers. He may start with his country road and 
market wagon, but that should not be the end of his 
journey. Time-tables for railroads and steamers may be 
employed in this connection. Various ways of transporta- 
tion, centers of exchange, different people engaged, should 
enter into the study. 

[183] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Following the start with the leading industry of his sec- 
tion, he may study the size and growth of his town, then 
of important places in his country or the world. In the 
same way he may start with his town or county govern- 
ment and the nationalities represented in his locality, and 
keep going outward from that as long as time permits. 

He may make imaginary journeys, carry on imaginary 
correspondence, and come out at the end of the year en- 
thusiastic and knowing considerable geography. Of course 
all this work is taken very simply. The outline is broad, 
— the teacher needs a broad outlook, — but the children 
are small, and at the end of the year's work one expects a 
beginning to be made, around which we may get a great 
geographical growth in the rest of the school course. 

Other plans for oral work. Nor is the plan just out- 
lined the only one by which the early work may be done. 
Many teachers make all the lessons type studies of various 
kinds, taking, for example, the Mississippi Valley ; the 
Great Lakes, Erie Canal, and Hudson River ; Niagara 
Falls ; Egypt ; Switzerland ; and many others ; each be- 
ing treated as a type, serving for the interpretation of other 
sections. Dr. Charles A. McMurry, in his various books 
on geography, makes excellent suggestions, and Carpenter's 
readers are full of good material. There are many ways 
of approach that will surely create interest, establish right 
ways of going to work, and furnish abundant general infor- 
mation for further use as the geographical work continues. 
With the possibility of work of this kind being done, 
how can a teacher be satisfied with a few set, formal ques- 
tions and rote answers as a substitute for real geographical 
achievement in lower grades ? 

[184] 



GEOGRAPHY 

Geography with a book. The child, having looked the 
world over a little through his year or so of oral geography, 
is ready to begin work with the book, but that does not 
mean that the book is to be given him as a substitute for 
everything else. Too many teachers think their whole duty 
lies in assigning a lesson and then hearing it recited. The 
book should only supplement class work. The regular 
work in class should be carried on in a manner only a little 
different from that employed before the book is used. Each 
advance lesson should be taken usually in class in the form 
of development work, then the pupil may be sent to the 
book to get additional information and to review and fix 
what has been taken. Not all parts of the geography are 
of equal importance, and the pupil should be trained to 
select the most essential parts as being the important 
ones. This is the part that is usually emphasized in the 
development, so the lesson furnishes needed training. 
Growth in power to recognize the essential comes surely 
though slowly from such work, and geography is better 
fitted than many subjects for training of this sort. Full 
and free discussion, in which the child questions at will 
and states his own opinions, will be of great advantage in 
this connection. 

Location of places. Location of places is important, and 
work in this line should be given. It should not be taken 
in place of other, more needed work, nor should the teacher 
judge it necessary for the location of all the small rivers, 
lakes, mountains, or towns in many sections to be learned. 
When beginning the study of a country the pupil is often 
interested in observing minor features, but this should 
never be carried to the extent of requiring memorizing of 

[135] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

them. A pupil should, at the end of his course in geog- 
raphy, have a working knowledge of the situation of all 
really important places. He should also know the location 
of smaller places important in his section of the country, 
but for a child to be expected to know the situation of 
places of minor importance throughout his entire country 
or the world is manifestly absurd. 

Aids in the work. Field lessons should still be empha- 
sized, and type lessons may well be used in connection with 
the study of countries. The large outline map, made of 
blackboard cloth, is very useful. Maps and globes should 
be employed. Map drawing and modeling are excellent 
helps. The children should make outline maps and also 
relief maps. For these last, one may use flour and salt in 
equal quantities, mixed with water to the consistency of 
bread dough. This will harden and may even, after a time, 
be colored with water color. Clay may be used also, and 
putty, and papier-mache made by soaking, till they form 
a pulpy mass, newspapers which have been torn into bits. 
Plasticine may be used and is a good material in that it 
will serve many times. The easiest medium is the sand, 
and that will fill the need in a large number of cases. 
Modeling sand is best, but any will do. 

The product-map idea may be enlarged here. A big 
map may be made, and the children may bring samples of 
all the products peculiar to localities, and these may be 
fastened to the map with glue or thread. A map of this 
kind will do more to fix facts and enlarge interest than 
will any amount of book study alone. The pictures and 
illustrative objects should be used whenever they fit the 
case. It makes no difference if they have appeared many 

[186] 



GEOGRAPHY 

times before in the same or other connections. The play 
idea is a help, and many games should be introduced. 
These may vary from lists of printed questions which 
are to be answered, to those like shiploading with proper 
products at certain places or " I am thinking of a river 
beginning with A." 

Use of different books. With older classes usually more 
than one book should be used for studying the lesson — 
more than one geography, and, if possible, geographical 
reading books and the scrapbook of clippings. It is a 
good idea to follow a book, but not to limit the work to 
one book alone. 

Emphasis of causal idea. As the children grow older, 
there should be more and more thinking, more tracing to 
sources and causes. No child should finish the subject of 
geography without knowing South America, Europe, Asia, 
and the other continents, in comparison with North America. 
They should be able to locate various corresponding regions 
in the different countries, corresponding causes producing 
like results. They should have such a careful causal study 
of North America that they may be almost able to work 
out the geography of the other continents from the map 
and what it shows of physical conditions. 

Reviews with older classes. The higher grammar-school 
classes, instead of reviewing the single big book over and 
over again, should study largely by subjects. They should 
get acquainted in the broad with the United States and 
with a few of the more important countries in South 
America, and in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Aside from 
the general study, little attention need be paid to the less 
important countries. Much study of types may be done in 

[187] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

the advanced classes. Fishing, lumbering, agriculture, 
commerce, different forms of manufacture, may serve as 
subjects, the work starting with the raw material and trac- 
ing it to its various destinations. I once saw a most inter- 
esting and profitable lesson on coal — the localities, mining, 
varieties, transportation, being discussed at length. The 
class grew brilliant and excited as they talked of the various 
great coaling stations of the world. The amount of reading 
that must have been done was astonishing. In the same 
way, iron, wool, cotton, wheat, and many others might be 
taken as general subjects. They would be equally sure to 
create enthusiasm and produce much research. In these 
general lessons many places indicate lacks which call for 
reviews of various things already taken once, and the review 
comes with a will because it fits to something seen by the 
pupil to be needed. Travel may also come in as a way of 
reviewing. If a teacher takes her class to journey through 
England or France or Russia or even through Europe 
generally, they get at the main things in a picturesque way, 
and the final year of geography might well be introduced 
to the children under the head of A Year of Travel. In 
this way conditions of climate might be reached, the 
reason for the development of particular industries and 
growth of particular sections, all the main geographical 
facts, in short. 

Toward the very end of the work it is well to review 
one's own group of states, but these should be taken as 
a general study, not by following the plan of the book. 
When the question of occupations in the section is reached, 
location of chief centers will come of themselves naturally 
and be far more interesting to the child than if he learns 

[188] 



GEOGRAPHY 

book lists of places with the things for which they are 
noted. Near the end of geographical study, also, a little 
general survey of mathematical geography is often produc- 
tive of good. 

The teacher and books as sources of aid. The teacher 
must ever know more than the pupils. She must inspire 
them to read, but she must read more. She must make 
them think, but she must think more. She must teach them 
to know what the book says, but she must know it sooner 
and better. No one can teach geography without justly 
hating and dreading it if she never prepares her lesson, 
hears the class with book open, follows answers with her 
finger, openly hunts for places on the map, and either 
guesses at pronunciations or slyly looks them up in the 
back of the book. 

Advanced work in geography calls for books, and some- 
way, either through the school library or the public library, 
the generosity of friends, the common sense of school 
officers, or the devotion of teachers, they must be had. 
One should as soon think of teaching any trade without 
tools, of teaching to sew without cloth, needle, thread, 
and thimble, as of teaching geography with next to 
nothing to work with or with no time and effort on the 
part of the teacher. 

REFERENCES 

Allen. Geographical and Industrial Studies, 3 volumes. Ginn 

and Company. 
Andrews. Geographical Plays. Ginn and Company. 
Brigham. Geographic Influences in American History. Ginn and 

Company. 
Carpenter. Geographical Readers. American Book Company. 

[189] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Carpenter. Industrial Readers. American Book Company. 

Frye. Child and Nature. Ginn and Company. 

Frye. Home Geography and Type Studies. Ginn and Company. 

Keller and Bishop. Commercial and Industrial Geography. Ginn 
and Company. 

King. Methods and Aids in Geography. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 

Leete. Exercises in Geography. Longmans, Green, & Co. 

McMurry. Excursions and Lessons in Home Geography. The 
Macmillan Company. 

McMurry. Special Method in Geography. The Macmillan Com- 
pany. 

McMurry. Type Studies in United States Geography. The Mac- 
millan Company. 

Mill. The International Geography. D. Appleton and Company. 

Murdock. Outlines in Geography. F. F. Murdock, North Adams, 
Mass. 

Ricks. Object Lessons, Volume II. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Stoddard, John L. Stoddard's Lectures. George L. Shuman 
and Company. 

The National Geographic Magazine. National Geographic Society, 
Washington, D.C. 

Thompson. Minimum Essentials (Geography). Ginn and Company. 



[l 9 o] 



CHAPTER XVIII 

HISTORY 

Introductory. History ranks with geography in interest 
and in power to train the reason. It adds to this, great 
power in an ethical direction. Yet many children, particu- 
larly girls, never like history, many do not think one real 
thought in connection with it, and many more fail to get its 
ethical lessons. A taste for history is born with some peo- 
ple, but it has to be cultivated in a far larger number. Very 
few children fail to be interested in people, and out of this 
interest may grow a real fondness for history. When the 
age of pleasure in heroes and adventures arrives, history 
may be made the largest contributory subject. 

Story-telling a foundation for history. The stcry work, 
even with little children, may do good service. Many of 
the history stories are better suited to older children, but 
the very youngest school pupil may find enjoyment in 
stories of the colonial children or of Indian life ; may grow 
eager over Pocahontas and John Smith, Columbus, Wash- 
ington, Lincoln, Marion, and many others. I have known 
of boys brought up on these stories, who at six or seven 
knew more history than many high-school graduates ; they 
made it enter into their lives and dominate their plays. 

History reading. History reading in school follows the 
story-telling. There are many supplementary readers that 
give good history material, and the child never fails of 

[I9i] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

interest. These books may be used to furnish subjects for 
language work, or they may serve for silent reading, or 
they may be employed for regular class readers. It is 
maintained that most class-reading work should be directly 
in the line of literature, but history and literature are so 
interwoven that history readers may well be classed with 
literature. Though this chapter has reference to United 
States history largely, yet this may be a good place to say 
that history reading and stories should not be confined to 
work with the United States. Greek, Roman, medieval, 
English, all history has been served up in story form and 
presents a fascinating field for school reading. 

The reading of history stories should be accompanied 
by free and long discussion, by dramatization, and by as 
much outside reading and investigation as possible. Every 
encouragement should be given toward introducing this 
with other school subjects into the children's out-of -school 
play. Pictures and illustrative objects should be made to 
do full duty in class, and the map should be in constant 
use in connection with this reading. 

Regular history study. If enough history reading is 
introduced with the younger classes, the pupil, by the time 
he has reached the seventh grade, is ready for some 
pretty good history study. It is better to keep both his- 
tory and geography through the seventh, eighth, and ninth 
grades, alternating with each other, rather than to study 
either one exhaustively and then leave it entirely. 

Early work in history proper should be detailed and, as 
far as possible, biographical. Once get the children into 
the full tide of interest through days of work on the In- 
dians, Columbus, Cabot, Hudson, Miles Standish, John 

[192] 



HISTORY 

Smith, William Penn, and the like, and they will sail along 
stanchly and blithely through all the work. The Indians, 
while perhaps not of great importance in some ways, are 
worth their weight in gold as a means of starting history 
classes enthusiastically. 

What to emphasize. It is better to study the more im- 
portant explorers and colonies carefully and fully and just 
glance at the others, rather than to study all a little. Atten- 
tion should be given to the life of the people — in the 
various colonies, at the close of the Revolution, at the 
beginning of the Civil War, at the present time. Wars 
should have less study than has been usually given them, 
and emphasis should be laid on causes and results. Great 
movements should be traced from their beginning to their 
culmination. Topics leading to present-day interests should 
be carefully discussed. Dates should not be given great 
prominence. A few important ones, and power to reckon 
others from those, are all that is needed. 

Local history. It is very important that children should 
know the history of their own state and locality, so enough 
time should be put upon local history so that the pupils 
may become well informed regarding it. Nor should the 
effort end with this. A permanent interest should be estab- 
lished, which the future may be trusted to increase. There 
seems to be no better way toward starting a child on the 
road to good citizenship than through study of the various 
elements which go toward the making of his neighbor- 
hood. Work of this kind may make a pupil grow to feel that 
he himself may do something which may count historically. 

It is not difficult to find material for this study, since 
state, town, and county histories are common and one 

[193] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

may get access to many records. Historical societies are 
always glad to help in the education of children, and their 
collections are often valuable. Older residents are usually 
willing to talk to the pupils, singly or as a whole, regard- 
ing changes, or past customs or events. For nearly every 
state there exists at least one supplementary reader con- 
taining in attractive form the most important happenings 
in the life of the state. 

Verbatim recitation. Word for word recitation should 
never be permitted. History has been studied in this way 
too long. Many a child has gone through school never 
realizing that this was not the best way, simply giving out 
words, of which he might know the meaning indeed, but 
for whose meaning he cared not a jot. From such recita- 
tions one almost never brings away the meaning of the 
whole thing, the relation of one part to another. 

Topical study from more than one book. Verbatim reci- 
tation may be avoided by the habitual use of more than 
one book. If the teacher wishes, one text may be taken 
as a standard and others employed in a supplementary 
way, but to get at the heart of the thing, there is no way 
so good as to present the subject by topics, with reference 
to pages of several books, and let the children forage for 
the subject matter. Results at first may be meager, but 
training remedies that, and a clear idea of the perspective 
of history, a knowledge of the relative importance of vari- 
ous facts, the reasoning, the power to learn by one's own 
research, will grow and strengthen rapidly. 

How to get the books. The books necessary for such 
study will come in various ways. It is as cheap to buy 
four histories of five kinds as twenty of one kind, and no 

[194] 



HISTORY 

objection is usually raised to buying books enough to go 
around. The teacher will have a few of her own. The 
children will bring a few from home. The school library 
will furnish one or two, and the public library others, per- 
haps. If the books can include a few elementary histories, 
they will be of value since the children of less power 
will get about all they can master from these. The history 
readers also will do their part. 

Discussion in class. In the lesson time, discussion and 
questions should abound. The children should ask all 
they want to, and if no one can answer, so much the 
better. Everyone can hunt for the answer for the next 
day. There have been classes in which the children did 
almost all the questioning, with profit. The teacher's ques- 
tions should include many like the following : " What 
would you have done ? " " Was that right ? " " What was 
the other side ? " " What would have happened if such a 
thing had been done ? " The Civil or the Mexican War, 
rightly handled, may do more to teach reasoning and 
develop moral judgment than much arithmetic and many 
Sunday-school lessons. 

Maps, and correlation with geography. As previously 
said, maps should be made prominent. The maps in the 
books, outline maps, chart maps, and blackboard maps may 
be employed. It is absurd to teach such things as the 
opening of the Mississippi, Sherman's march, Dr. Whit- 
man's journey to Oregon, the purchase of Louisiana or 
Alaska, and the discovery of gold in California, without the 
use of the map as the very foundation of the lesson. Such 
things as Paul Revere's ride and the battle of Lexington 
call for the blackboard map in addition to the usual chart. 

[195] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Often a whole geography lesson or series of lessons 
may be given as a preparation for special history work. 
The Panama Canal furnishes an illustration of this, or the 
study of Cuba and the Philippines in connection with the 
Spanish War ; and no possible understanding can be ob- 
tained of the difference in character of the early settle- 
ments in the North and the South or the different attitude 
of people toward slavery without a clear knowledge of 
geographical conditions. 

A correlation of history with geography should be made 
whenever possible. This correlation should not be confined 
to a few particular lessons. The tendency of children to 
learn, and of teachers to teach, detached facts in all sub- 
jects makes the need imperative that teachers shall use 
earnest effort to connect lessons of to-day in any subject 
with those of last week, last month, or even last term — 
a time which seems to children to be so remote as to be 
absolutely unconnected with present needs. 

Pictures, poems, and stories. Pictures will never fail 
if the teacher realizes their importance, and many of the 
pictures easily obtainable are best suited to history work. 
Pictures of people, places, and events are all valuable, and 
a picture once used should not be put aside but used 
again as soon as possible. 

Poems and stories are very helpful. Many of our most 
beautiful and stirring poems deal with historical facts and 
hauntingly fix the facts through the tendency of the poem 
to force itself repeatedly to the front in thought. Many 
poems too long to be learned may be read to the class. 
There are also many little stories, not directly containing 
the historical facts, which yet are so associated with them 

[196] 



HISTORY 

as to be a help in learning and liking history. Many books 
so handle historical material or give such vivid pictures 
of the times or so portray some great character in history 
that calling the attention of the children to them will serve 
as a large means for doing more effective work. 

Reviews. Reviews in history are of the greatest value, 
but in all reviews those are the best which are incidental 
and which approach the subject from a different point of 
view. Studying history by topics, from different books, fur- 
nishes many excellent reviews, as the different material 
is gone over endlessly, and as one meets the man again 
or surveys the event in the light of those to which it led. 

Training gained through history. History should train 
to reasoning power. The child should find the central 
thread upon which the events are strung and by which 
they are held together. It should train to power to talk. 
It should lead to habits of investigation. It should teach 
ethics — power to see the other side, to judge of the right 
and wrong, and to choose the right regardless of conse- 
quences. It should teach patriotism, love of great deeds, 
love of freedom. 

Preparation of teacher. If the teacher can create in her 
pupils a love for history, she will have gone far toward 
attaining all the above-named results. To do this she must 
know her subject. The trouble with many young teachers 
is a lack of knowledge. They know each day's work well 
enough, but have no large grasp of the subject. In a sense, 
they know little more than the children themselves. Study 
and thought are the only things that will remedy this con- 
dition. Reading biographies of leaders, studying such books 
as Gordyand Twitchell's "American History Pathfinder" 

[197] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

or the report of the Committee of Eight on the study of 
history, reading European history as well as American, 
all such things will help. What is most needed is a pas- 
sionate enthusiasm for the subject, just what we need in 
all subjects. This makes willingness to work. It is vastly 
more trouble to teach history in a right way, but, on the 
other hand, it brings vastly more satisfaction. No teacher 
succeeds in any subject without exertion, without a profound 
giving of herself. 

REFERENCES 

Atkinson. Introduction to American History. Ginn and Company. 
Charters. Teaching the Common Branches. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. 
Gordy and Twitchell. American History Pathfinder. Lothrop, 

Lee & Shepard Company. 
Harding. The Story of Europe. Scott, Foresman and Company. 
Kemp. History for Graded and District Schools. Ginn and 

Company. 
Study of History in Elementary Schools. Report of Committee of 

Eight. Charles Scribner's Sons. 

References for Local History. 

State, town, or county histories. 

The sections on the different states in the regular school histories. 

The historical parts of the special work on the states, in the 

different school geographies. 
The collections and records of the state historical societies. 
State year books for general statistics. 
Town and county records. 

Supplementary readers, containing stories of a special state. 
The recollections of the older residents. 



[I 9 8] 



CHAPTER XIX 

NATURE STUDY 

Introductory. Nature study furnishes the country 
teacher's opportunity and may become a joy to any 
teacher who goes about it in the right spirit. The term 
"nature study," as used for work commonly done in school,, 
includes much of elementary science, and its teaching 
often develops a real scientific spirit in the child. The 
teacher should aim in her work to get the pupil into a 
sympathetic attitude toward nature, and opportunities are 
all about her for producing such an attitude. He should 
be made interested, observant, inquisitive. He should ask 
more and more questions daily, and to many of these he 
should obtain answers for himself. 

What to include. The problem of how to begin is seri- 
ous only because there are so many good ways of begin- 
ning, so many good things with which to start. I should 
say the teacher had best begin with what most interests 
her, but if she prefers, she may begin with what most 
attracts the children with whom she has to deal. The 
prominent nature interest of the locality furnishes a good 
starting point. The only absolutely necessary thing is that 
some start be made. The teacher should select for sub- 
jects useful things mainly, but secondarily she may teach 
whatever the child wishes to know. In village or rural 
schools much of the work should lead finally and more or 

[199] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

less directly to agriculture. The ground includes work 
with plants, animals, minerals, and natural phenomena. 
As helpful in connection with these, one gets simple little 
bits of physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy. 

Plant life. What may the child wish to know, and be 
helped by the knowing, in plant life ? His first interest 
may come through flowers, or sprouting seeds, or budding 
twigs, or fruiting plants. In either case he finally gets to 
thinking about the whole subject, and one place of start- 
ing is as good as another. He has to recognize the parts 
of a plant and the cycle of its growth. He must learn that 
the plant usually consists of root, stem, leaves, blossoms, and 
fruit ; the whole growth-process taking place, he discovers, in 
order that seed or what answers for seed may be produced, so 
that a new plant may be made in turn. Here the little child 
finds the first big wonder — all these pains that new plants 
may come. The wonder is bound to grow, and it seems 
one of the principal needs in the study that nature's large 
and wonderful plans should stand out as clearly as possible. 
The little pupil early learns the parts of the plant, the place 
and manner of their growth, and the general use of each 
part to the plant and to man. Around this early knowledge 
may be grouped the later in any convenient order. 

Fall work with plants. If the teacher's first start in 
the school comes in the fall, she finds demanding atten- 
tion most insistently such things as the preparation of the 
trees for winter, the changing and the falling leaves, the 
ripening of the fruit of the trees — not the fruit trees alone, 
like the apple and the pear, but the nut trees and all 
others whose fruit matures in the fall. Here will develop 
more of the wonder as one begins to investigate to see 

[ 200] 



NATURE STUDY 

if all trees have fruit and how they come by it — a problem 
to be answered partly by present observation, partly by 
memory, and partly to be stored up for future answering 
another year. Nature is a great continued story. 

The pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, beets, turnips, 
onions, potatoes, all the fall vegetables, may be worked 
upon and are very interesting now. 

Here the child wonders again as he finds so many ways 
of storing nourishment for future use — in the seed as pea 
and bean ; in the root, as the beet and turnip ; in the bud, 
as the onion ; in the stem, as the potato. Not only chil- 
dren but grown people also are surprised to find that the 
potato is not a root. They use the argument that because it 
grows under ground it must be root, but learning that only 
stems bear buds and branches and finding the branches 
growing in the form of sprouts in the axils of embryo 
leaves on the potato, they accept the fact and grow doubt- 
ful of believing that all things are so because they have 
always thought them so. Children call the onion a root for 
the old reason, but taking one apart they find the parts look 
like leaves, and an opening is made for a story, the end of 
which may be suggested when they study some big terminal 
bud on a tree in the spring. In ways like these they are 
trained to minds open to conviction, eager to grow to 
new beliefs. 

Surprised to find what they have taken for roots to be 
something else, "Are there many underground stems ? " 
they ask. " Let us find out," says the teacher. "Are they 
always thickened ? " another problem for solution. The 
beauty of it is the fact that observation through a long 
time is required for the answer to many of the questions. 

[20I] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

The child finds out that some of his enemies are these 
underground stems ; for example, the grass that creeps 
along under ground and seems to say "Thank you " when 
you cut it up with a hoe, because you have made a lot of 
sturdy little plants and saved it the trouble. Other aspects 
of stems will appear as the work goes on, and the child is 
always interested in them. Study of bare branches teaches 
him that nature does not take chances. Careful preparation 
for next year is made before the winter comes. Indeed, 
getting interested in nature's foresight is a large means 
of training to thoughtfulness. 

Seed dissemination. Not the least interesting part of the 
fall plant work is the dissemination of seeds. If seeds are 
collected, it makes a never-ending source of pleasure, and 
the child's wonder increases as he finds them catching 
rides on people's clothing and animals' fur ; being borne 
along by the wind ; snapped, as out of guns, by the open- 
ing of the seed cases ; or scattered by animals. Here he 
becomes interested in the attractive appearance of the 
fruit — its color, odor, taste — and in the observing that 
these attractions do not appear till the seed is matured. 
He observes the abundance of seeds produced by weeds 
and learns the value of destroying the weed before it has 
time to mature. 

He begins to get a reason for protecting birds, with- 
out whom there would be so many undesirable plants. 
Seeing the great number of seeds borne by the weed 
and the power of such a plant to live, though its seeds 
be so tiny, he may be made to understand that many 
little things, well or ill done, will more than balance a 
few large ones. 

[202] 



NATURE STUDY 

Winter plant study. Winter study may include certain 
of the work suggested for fall, like that with vegetables 
and fruits, but winter is not without other means for plant 
study, though most of this work may be better done in 
fall and spring. One of the best things for winter study 
is furnished in the evergreens, which are interesting be- 
cause they stay green when other trees are bare and because 
of their connection with Christmas. The child may find 
out whether the tree actually does not shed its leaves ; may 
account for the peculiar growth of the tree through arrange- 
ment of the buds, follow out the growth for several years, 
think of reasons for the characteristics of the tree fitting 
it to its place of growth, observe the buds and cones. He 
finds the need of supplementing this observation by memory 
of the summer and by further observation next summer. 
Trees, leafless in winter, may also be studied now. 

In the winter the pupil will be interested in studying 
bulbs and other plants grown indoors, if such work is pos- 
sible under the conditions at hand. Such plants add greatly 
to the pleasure of school life, since out of doors is so devoid 
of bloom. In the winter also may be studied many com- 
mercial plants — cotton, tea, tobacco, wheat, rice, sugar 
cane, and those that have a marked influence geographi- 
cally. Certain specimens may be obtained, and much 
shown by pictures. 

Plant study in the spring. Spring opens the door again 
to an abundance of plant study. The child is eagerly ready 
to see how the seeds he has observed in the fall get about 
their work in the spring. He marvels that they can do it 
so quickly and gets his eyes open to the reason — a ques- 
tion of care for the future again, stored food making the 

[203] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

problem easy. He is much pleased at discovering the little 
plant all prepared, the different ways in which the food 
may be packed. He sees seeds sprouting everywhere,- won- 
ders at bare places anywhere, and so learns to find the 
enemies of plant life and guard against them. 

Study of budding twigs comes early. They may be 
brought indoors and their development watched day by 
day. Nature's ways of protecting the buds appear ; hard 
scales, gum, wool, unpleasant scent — every precaution 
against cold, wet, insects, and other enemies. He finds 
that some of the buds make flowers, some develop into 
leaves, others contain both flowers and leaves. He learns 
that flower parts are altered leaves, finds out that buds are 
undeveloped branches, and so has a way to account for 
many problems. He sees that trees blossom. This was left 
over from fall for answer. The continued story is telling 
itself. Later he finds out about the fruit of some that have 
puzzled him before. Many a mother at home is surprised 
to know that all the trees blossom. They have never been 
quite aware of it till their attention is called to it by the 
children's interest. 

Much interesting work may be done in the study of the 
little common plants of field and roadside and flower gar- 
den. The spring flowers are simple, largely. The com- 
posites the child should be taught to recognize as little 
bouquets. Transplanting brings new lights. The things 
necessary for growth appear more clearly, and the results 
of crowding in garden or forest, with reasons why plants 
must be kept, if possible, from losing leaves. Knowledge 
of many of such things will come naturally and easily. 
Planting seeds and transplanting bring the pupil naturally 

[204] 



NATURE STUDY 

to other ways of propagating. He gets interested in the 
strawberry bed, in making layers and cuttings, in grafting, 
in producing changes through careful selection. Luther 
Burbank becomes a wonderful man to him. The moral 
lessons to be drawn are worth the time taken, if we count 
no other values. Many experiments may be tried regard- 
ing conditions necessary for plant growth. Seeds may be 
started on damp blotting paper, sponges, sawdust, and in 
soils of various kinds. They may be kept in the dark; the 
light ; bright sunlight. They may be kept very wet ; moist ; 
or dry. They may be planted in sand, clay, humus, or 
in loams in which sand, clay, and other ingredients are 
prominent. 

Mineral study. This leads naturally to investigations of 
various kinds of soils, the treatment needed by each, and 
mixtures that are profitable. The problems of worn-out 
soils, rotation of crops, favorite soils for different plants, 
are ones the child is pleased to work upon. Places where 
particular soils may be looked for, and the making of soil 
generally, will be good for research questions. The study 
of soils is closely interwoven with that of plants. 

Other interesting mineral study may be taken in con- 
nection with quarrying, mining, manufacturing. Slate, coal, 
granite, limestone, any of the building stones, and any 
common minerals may be studied. This should fit in finely 
with the geography work. The metals are good for study 
and give a strong field for experiment work which de- 
lights the child. The metals occur so frequently in con- 
nection with daily living that it is necessary that children 
should have a good, reasonable acquaintance with their 
possibilities, their limitations, and the right ways of using 

[205] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

them. Such mineral study as may not be taken in con- 
nection with the plant and animal study may well occupy 
some of the time in the winter term. 

Animal study. Study of animal life may go on all the 
year round. Much of it may be done in direct connection 
with the plant work. Part of it may form the subject of 
separate study. The work should include the common do- 
mestic animals — cat, dog, horse, cow, pig, and hen ; also 
any pet animals, like the rabbit or squirrel ; and the com- 
mon household pests, like the rat, mouse, fox, and weasel. 
The domestic animals of other countries should be studied 
— the elephant, camel, llama, reindeer, Eskimo dog. These 
last should be taken in connection with their work in the 
life of the people. This is closely connected with the 
geography study. 

Mode of working. Certain animals should be taken as 
types, and the others studied with reference to the type. 
The cat and dog, for example, may be taken as types of 
two classes of flesh eaters ; the horse and cow as plant 
eaters ; the squirrel or rabbit as gnawers. This study may 
be done partly by schoolroom observation and partly by 
assigning observation to be done out of school. No set 
form of study need be followed, but the pupil should learn 
to see how closely physical structure and habits are related. 
The start may be made with the structure or with the 
habits. Studying the cat, for instance, the child learns 
that the animal is so built that it may best get its food 
and prolong its life. Starting with the food, one gets at 
the teeth, tongue, keenness of smell, feelers, eyes, feet, 
covering. The cat catches its prey usually by night; it 
crouches, creeps, springs — unlike the dog, who boldly 

[206] 



NATURE STUDY 

hunts his down. Each is so made, physically, as to be 
adapted to its mode of life. The pupil finds it interesting 
to compare cat and dog in structure and way of living. 
Starting with the home animals as types, the children may 
later easily understand the more common wild animals 
that are relations of these, such as the wolf, lion, tiger, 
bear, and deer. 

The study of animals should include a knowledge of 
the good and ill they do and of certain obligations that 
belong to the children. The gnawing animals being de- 
structive, the good they do must be weighed with the 
harm. Many of them are useful for their fur covering. 
Many of them are almost wholly harmful, and extermina- 
tion must be their fate. The cat helps in the destruction 
of mice and such vermin, but she carries diseases and 
must be looked out for. The cat also does great harm 
in destroying birds, who are our benefactors because they 
eat millions of harmful seeds, insects, and worms each year. 
If we weigh good and ill and decide to keep cats or other 
pets, it is our duty to care for them. Having made them 
dependent upon us, we have no right to leave them to 
shift for themselves, to forget to give them food and 
water, or to fail to make provision for them when we go 
away for the summer. The child needs to know such 
things, and he, in turn, may teach his mother. 

Smaller forms of animal life. Study of the common 
smaller forms of animal life, — like the fly, mosquito, ant, 
cricket, grasshopper, beetle, bee, moth, — should be made 
prominent. Children are intensely interested in such study. 
These forms should be observed for their structure and 
manner of development and particularly for their work in 

[207] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

hindering and helping man. Such work will justify itself 
if, for instance, only a few children are awakened to the 
need of guarding themselves from the mosquito in such 
ways as by drainage and by looking after breeding places. 
A single child, who is moved to pour kerosene on the 
barrel of rain water or overturn or remove tin cans or 
bits of broken crockery that may harbor stagnant water, 
may teach a whole neighborhood or at least make it less 
uncomfortable. A roomful of children, taught the deadly 
work of flies and the need of excluding them from our 
houses or at any rate from our food, may by and by have 
a perceptible effect upon the death rate. 

Study of smaller animal forms may in certain localities 
include study of the home pests in the shape of bugs 
of various sorts. In many homes this trouble will never 
be reached so well as through the schools. The instruc- 
tion being given in a general way, no offense can be taken. 
The children may be aroused to the way these things are 
regarded and stirred to do away with them. They should 
be taught that absolute cleanliness is the first requisite, 
and that constant watchfulness and care must be paid as 
the price for decency and comfort. The study of bacteria 
should not be omitted, and many helpful truths may be 
driven home in this connection. 

Continued schoolroom observation. Much observation 
may be done from day to day in the schoolroom. Crickets 
and grasshoppers may be put, with a big sod, on a plate 
under a common wire fly screen and there observed through 
all their changes. The tiny grasshoppers, hatched from the 
eggs laid in the sod and so small that they can slip be- 
tween the wires, prove a source of great interest. Bits of 

[208] 



NATURE STUDY 

apple, fresh grass, and such food, must be provided, and 
watch must be kept, that the little visitors may not be 
uncomfortable. Seeing how voraciously they eat, helps one 
to understand their destructive power. 

Cocoons, brought in during the fall and kept in the 
schoolroom, furnish much pleasure. In general the larger 
worms, or larvae, are the best for the purpose. When they 
are found crawling they are about through with their feed- 
ing in some cases, but it is safe to put in leaves of the 
plant near which they are found. They may be kept in a 
box covered with mosquito netting. It is better to put in 
some earth, as many of them spend the pupa state in the 
ground. Butterflies may sometimes be fed on sugar and 
water, which they will take from the finger if it is offered 
by gently touching the finger smeared with the mixture to 
the coiled sucking tube of the little creature. 

The observation of the schoolroom should always be 
supplemented by outside work. The pupil should be taught 
to observe all possible insects for the work they do — such 
as eating vegetation ; destroying other forms of animal life ; 
assisting, annoying, or endangering people ; helping ferti- 
lization of plants by means of carrying pollen. This aids 
him in deciding which forms should be destroyed and 
which protected. 

Children should be trained not to fear needlessly, nor 
yet to handle too freely ; this because of danger to health 
and also for fear of unintentional cruelty. Kindness should 
be emphasized. Nothing should be tortured, nothing kept 
in the schoolroom without proper care. Teachers are often 
more careless in this last respect than children, being fre- 
quently known to neglect animals brought in for study. 

[209] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

The aquarium. An aquarium in school is very valuable. 
These may be made and stocked quite easily. Directions 
for making are well given in Hodge's " Nature Study." 
Articles in the School Arts Book for October, 1904, and 
September, 1909, give excellent suggestions for their care. 
I have used for the schoolroom some made by Hodge's 
directions, some goldfish globes, and various glass dishes. 
These dishes may serve also as vivariums. In these have 
been kept fishes, tadpoles, snails, turtles, newts, lizards, 
clams, and, for a while, tiny snakes, in which the children 
became much interested. The most satisfactory receptacle 
we have found to be the rectangular aquarium described 
by Hodge. Though it is difficult to get a perfectly self- 
adjusting one, it is comparatively easy to have one that will 
serve the purpose. Little water plants may be found in 
any brook or pond, and they adapt themselves easily to 
the conditions. It is better not to try to keep too many 
kinds of life together, nor to have too large specimens. 

Bird study. Of all forms of animal life, perhaps none 
so interests the children as birds. Observation of them 
must be carried on largely out of school, but in-school talks 
will help such observation. From the first grades, where a 
flower-and-bird calendar may be made from the children's 
descriptions of birds and flowers seen, to the highest 
grades, where systematic observation may be reported, there 
is no lag in the interest. The bird-and-flower calendar may 
consist simply of the names, put in the calendar squares 
in place of the figure for the day they were first seen, or 
the more ambitious teacher may have the picture of the 
bird, insect, or flower in colored crayons. Bird study may 
include the teaching of many things that will make birds 

[210] 



NATURE STUDY 

more comfortable, such as making bird houses, knowing 
what to do when little birds are found, and feeding when 
food is scarce. Desire to protect the birds will come with 
the knowledge of their attractiveness and of their use 
to man. 

In general it may be said that all forms of animal life 
are of great interest to children, and by acquainting them 
with the part of each in the economic life of people one 
may do a great work for the future. 

Natural phenomena. Work in natural phenomena be- 
longs with nature study and has been referred to already 
in connection with geography. Weather observations, 
simple study of air and water in their various manifesta- 
tions, much work of this kind, may be done casually ; and 
much more in regular geography lessons. 

Time and place of nature lessons. It has been indicated 
that much of this work is really so connected with geogra- 
phy and physiology that it may be taken with those sub- 
jects. Much more may go along with the language and 
reading and be closely connected with the drawing. Con- 
siderable may be done at opening-exercises time, morning 
and afternoon ; and Friday afternoon gives an opportunity 
for the work. Very much may be taken casually, a word 
here, a hint there. In schools with crowded programs — 
rural schools — a good way of giving it is to assign certain 
questions for which answers are to be found. The answers 
may be discovered in the woods, the field, the pond or 
brook, by the roadside, in the home or school garden. 
The little ones may find what they can, the older ones 
more. They may learn at recesses, at noons, on their way 
to and from school, and the younger children will find it 

[211] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

an interesting means of occupying themselves when they 
are sent out during school hours. Study of certain things 
may continue for days or weeks. Jackman's " Nature 
Study for Common Schools " suggests many excellent 
questions. 

Experiments. Simple experiments may be carried on 
day by day. These may be concluded immediately, as 
when we melt lead or make a filter ; or they may go on 
for a long time, as when we develop twigs or grow seeds 
or watch butterfly changes. The experiment appeals 
directly to the senses and therefore furnishes one of the 
best means of teaching. It also calls for strong exercise 
of judgment and of reasoning. Incidentally it trains to 
truthfulness. 

The apparatus needed for such experiments is usually 
very crude, but children may make apparatus for rather 
complicated experiments in physics if the teacher is suffi- 
ciently interested to encourage them. Electric lights and 
bells, steam engines, water wheels, pumps of various sorts, 
are often the product of rather small boys. 

Aids. Pictures, drawings, and specimens of many kinds 
may be used helpfully in this work. They need not be 
beautiful, nor elaborate, but they should be exact. 

General. No teacher is expected to do all the work here 
indicated. Abundant material is suggested, from which 
choice may be made. The main thing to produce is inter- 
est in nature. Out of this will come the other things. 
Nature study will increase knowledge, being one of the 
best information subjects in the curriculum. It will train 
mentally — to observation, expression, judgment, reason- 
ing, habits of investigation. It lays the right foundation 

[212] 



NATURE STUDY 

for correct memory and inventive imagination. It teaches 
a love for the beautiful and develops the habit of exact 
truth-telling. It teaches sympathy, mercy, kindness, abun- 
dant reverence, and, beyond most subjects, it gives pleasure 
— pleasure in the present study, and future pleasure by 
arousing the child to the wonders of the world about him. 
It means work for the teacher, though not so much as she 
thinks. And after all why should not the teacher work ? 

REFERENCES 

Bailey. Lessons with Plants. The Macmillan Company. 

Ball. Star-Land. Ginn and Company. 

Beal. Seed Dispersal. Ginn and Company. 

Boyden. Nature Study for Elementary Grades. New England 

Publishing Company. 
Chapman. Handbook of Birds. D. Appleton and Company. 
Comstock. Handbook of Nature Study. Comstock Publishing 

Company. 
Cornell Nature Leaflets. Bureau of Nature Study, Cornell University. 
Coulter and Patterson. Practical Nature Study. D. Appleton 

and Company. 
Cummings. Nature Study in Primary Grades. American Book 

Company. 
Dana. How to know the Wild Flowers. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
Hodge. Nature Study and Life. Ginn and Company. 
Jackman. Nature Study for Common Schools. Henry Holt and 

Company. 
Longmans' Object Lessons. Longmans, Green, & Co. 
McMurry. Special Method in Science. The Macmillan Company. 
Mathews. Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music. G. P. 

Putnam's Sons. 
Morley. Insect Folk. 2 volumes. Ginn and Company. 
Overton and Hill. Nature Study. American Book Company. 
Parsons. How to know the Ferns. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
Rick. Object Lessons, Volume II. D. C. Heath & Co. 
Roth. A First Book of Forestry. Ginn and Company. 

[ 2I 3] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

School Arts Magazine. School Arts Publishing Company. 
Scudder. Guide to Butterflies. Henry Holt and Company. 
Willcox. Land Birds of New England. Lothrop, Lee & Shep- 

ard Co. 
Williams. Gardens and their Meaning. Ginn and Company. 
Wilson. Nature Study in Elementary Schools. The Macmillan 

Company. 
Wood. Animals: Their Relation and Use to Man. Ginn and 

Company. 



[2I 4 ] 



CHAPTER XX 

DRAWING 

Neglect of the subject. Drawing is a subject still neglected 
in many schools. This neglect is due partly to lack of time 
and partly to the teacher's ignorance either of its value or 
of ways of going about it. Drawing may be handled in 
such a way as to take very little of the program time, if 
one so chooses. It may be used mostly in connection with 
the regular subjects of the school day, and much of the 
child's work may be done during his study periods. Sug- 
gestions may be made by the teacher without directly 
encroaching upon the other work. If the teacher who is 
doubtful of its value, or who feels uncertain of her ability, 
will but make a beginning, she will find enthusiasm and 
power increasing rapidly. Of course it is much better, 
when circumstances allow, to have a regular period for 
drawing, and in most schools this may be arranged for, 
without cutting unduly into time needed for other work. 

Interest, the first step. First, the child should be made 
interested in drawing. One of the best ways to produce 
this interest is for the teacher to draw as freely as may be, 
in connection with all lessons. Crude little sketches that 
illustrate the work being taken are very effective and may 
be done by most teachers, even those not greatly gifted, 
as often not much artistic power is needed to secure what 
is wanted. Teachers should not hesitate to make attempts 

[215] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

to illustrate. Usually the children are not critical, the 
subjects being taught may often be made much clearer, 
and the child is almost sure to get an interest in trying to 
draw for himself. The little child is not afraid to draw 
anything. If he is encouraged to advance, he easily grows 
into the habit of using this means of expression as freely 
as talking. " I can't easily describe it, but I can show you 
with the crayon," may come to be the attitude of many 
children instead of one or two. 

Interest being aroused, we have found a sure way to 
get the pupil to draw and have also discovered some sub- 
jects for him to try. In addition to class illustration of 
oral work, he may draw to illustrate all his papers on vari- 
ous subjects. He may make large sketches on separate 
sheets of paper to accompany the written ones, or he may 
make little sketches on the written paper itself. This 
idea expanded gives us the booklet to which reference 
has been made elsewhere. It has a marked effect in 
producing good papers. 

Sources of subjects. Much work may be done in draw- 
ing. Subjects may be found everywhere. Spring and 
fall flowers, fruits, vegetables, sprouting plants or twigs, 
seed vessels of all kinds, weeds, grasses, anything in 
plant life, may be used. This work springs out of the 
nature study easily and may be much employed in that 
connection. Study of nature also suggests landscape pic- 
tures of all kinds, from sunset and single trees to a rather 
elaborate composition. Along with the nature study may 
go pictures of all forms of animal life, — insects, birds, 
and the larger animals, — the drawing to be done from the 
objects themselves usually. Drawing, as springing out of 

[216] 



DRAWING 

the language work or forming a basis for it, suggests rep- 
resentation of all forms of activity and life and so opens 
a broad field. The daily happenings in the life of the 
child give him for subjects common household utensils, 
toys, children in various poses, and special celebration fea- 
tures as suggested by the fair, the circus, Memorial Day, 
Washington's Birthday, or Christmas. His industrial work 
gives abundant chance for drawing. He draws plans for 
objects, selects color schemes for them from nature, and 
works out as many as possible of them with suitable 
materials. 

Many things which are often treated under the head of 
drawing have been here touched upon under Industrial 
Work, Desk Work, and in other places ; but it should 
be remembered that all sides — paper folding and cut- 
ting, modeling, coloring, constructing, illustrating, picture 
study, everything of the sort — belong with the drawing 
and serve to make a correlation possible between it and 
most school subjects. Under the drawing also may be 
included much work like that suggested in the general 
exercises, like flower selection and arrangement, study of 
pleasing vase and pottery forms, practice in choosing re- 
lated objects for groups, study of attractive effects in house 
decoration and in dress, with many like things which may 
serve to improve the taste of public-school children and 
through them of the people at large. 

Material. As many mediums of expression as possible 
should be employed in the drawing. The one that best ex- 
presses the required idea is the one to use. Some things 
call emphatically for color, while others tell their story 
better through aid of the pencil. Sometimes one has to 

[217] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

employ the medium that is available, and sometimes dif- 
ferent members of a class may work with different tools. 
The common cedar lead pencils are capable of much, and 
several degrees of hardness may be found among them, 
though most of them are soft and work well for ordinary 
representation. 

Colored pencils and colored crayons, such as are found 
in boxes for a few cents, work splendidly. Of course more 
expensive pencils and crayons are better — Dixon's, for 
example, furnishing an excellent medium. It is to be 
remembered that many of the crayons are injurious, or 
even poisonous, if swallowed, so little children should be 
cautioned constantly about putting them in the mouth. 
Many children have little boxes of colored crayons or 
paints at home, which they are glad to bring for use at 
school. In one school the children aroused to interest in 
the work brought colored crayons, then water colors. The 
idea spread, and soon all were working, the teacher learn- 
ing with the children. Water-color paints are very satis- 
factory for use, and many of them are cheap. Though it 
is nice to have really good colors, the cheaper ones 
may be made to serve very well. Good gray pictures, or 
pictures in " values " as they are now called, may be se- 
cured by the use of common ink and brush — a medium 
easily obtained. 

Most drawings should be made upon sheets of paper of 
varying colors, shapes, and sizes. These are far superior 
to books in every way. The cheapest manila drawing 
paper is of greatest general use, since it furnishes a rather 
soft background color and takes pencil or paint easily. 
The blackboard should be employed also, and blackboard 

[218] 



DRAWING 

sketching is fascinating work. Many striking effects may 
be produced with the side of a bit of white or colored 
crayon used boldly upon the board. Whitney's book 
called " Blackboard Sketching " furnishes many sugges- 
tions for board work. 

The children should be cautioned to use care and neat- 
ness in handling materials. It is well to provide blotters 
and pieces of soft cloth, that all sloppy work may be looked 
after immediately. Even ink spilled upon the floor may 
be largely removed with blotters followed by a washing 
with clear water, if the accident is attended to at once. 
If left, one has to have recourse to sand papering or 
scraping with glass. 

The lesson. In giving the lesson, the teacher should 
apply her common sense and pedagogical knowledge. 
She should expect the children to do the best work of 
which they are capable and should direct the lesson to the 
best of her ability, not merely give out materials and then 
leave the class to meet all the problems alone. She should 
give certain general directions from time to time, but most 
of her suggestions will need to be individual. These should 
be given in a low tone to each child. It is not necessary 
for all to hear every direction, and a constant running fire 
of suggestion and criticism not only confuses the class as 
a whole but renders it dull to those directions which it is 
really necessary for all to hear. 

The teacher may often take the brush or pencil and 
show the child how to get an effect, but nearly all the work 
should be done by the pupil instead of by the teacher. 
Assistance should be divided. It is not wise to work too 
long with one child. Constantly the children should be 

[ 2I 9] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

made to look at the object they are trying to draw, and the 
teacher should not so interpose herself between them and 
it that they cannot possibly see it. When a pupil secures 
a good effect he should be made immediately to put 
down his tools. If he does not, he soon sees another 
touch to be made that will probably spoil his picture. It 
may often be put at once on exhibition, to stimulate the 
rest of the class. 

Drawing should train to artistic power. Drawing is sup- 
posed to train the child's artistic power ; the teacher should 
try to have it do so. In arranging objects for drawing, care 
should be used to make the arrangement pleasing. There 
are good and bad ways of pinning a spray upon a sheet 
of paper to serve as a model. Teachers should train them- 
selves to look for the pleasing way. There is a great dif- 
ference in the shapes of paper required for different objects. 
If the specimen seems to call for a panel, the drawing 
should be so made. There is a difference in the kinds of 
lines needed to produce effective drawings. For example, 
mechanical drawing calls for a hard, fine line ; while in 
outlines, what is wanted almost always is a very soft, broad, 
gray line, better made with the side of the pencil. Often 
teachers permit the children to grip the pencil tightly and 
to produce hard, black lines, with no attention to beauty 
lost thereby. A hundred little ideas regarding things like 
these may be picked up by any teacher if she observes 
good drawings, which are easily to be found in these days, 
and studies the various helps in books which are also easily 
obtained. The Prang Textbooks of Art Instruction fur- 
nish a great deal of help to a teacher, and the School Arts 
Magazine contains much information and inspiration. 

[ 220] 



DRAWING 

Nevertheless, without such aids it is perfectly possible 
to get pretty good drawing results if one sets about secur- 
ing it from the children as a means of free expression. 
The little people should draw from observation, memory, 
imagination. They should tell stories of various sorts by 
means of the work. The teacher should have high ideals 
and expect much from the pupils. She should not be in 
the mood expressed by " That 's pretty good for a small 
child" or " One can't expect much from babies" any more 
in drawing than in writing. She should demand reasonably 
good work, though she may often fail to get it. Some of 
the results will be startlingly effective. Most of the draw- 
ings will be only moderately good considered as works of 
art, but power may be increasing. The eyes of the child are 
opened to see ; the hand becomes skilled to tell ; the brain, 
which presides over both eye and hand, grows steadily in 
power. Though an occasional child can never learn to 
draw, yet even in such a case the time is not wasted. 

REFERENCES 

Batchelder. The Principles of Design. Inland Printer Company. 

Cross. Free-Hand Drawing. Ginn and Company. 

Daniels. Teaching of Ornament. J. C. Witter Co. 

Prang. A Course in Water Color. The Prang Educational Co. 

Prang. Textbooks of Art Instruction. The Prang Educational Co. 

School Arts Magazine. School Arts Publishing Company. 

Seegmiller. Applied Arts Drawing Books. Atkinson, Mentzer, and 

Company. 
Shaylor. Book of Alphabets. Ginn and Company. 
Whitney. Blackboard Sketching. Milton Bradley Company. 



[221 ] 



CHAPTER XXI 

WRITING 

Writing not to be begun too early. Children should not 
begin to write too early. During the first weeks in school 
there are so many ways in which they may gain knowledge 
without tax that it seems wiser to omit writing altogether, 
but when the work is well established, getting ready to write 
may be begun. First- and second-grade children have no 
business to write too well. Their work, instead of present- 
ing copy-book perfection as it too often does, should have 
the same relation to the finished writing product that a 
child's drawings at this age usually bear to the results ob- 
tained in advanced classes. This does not mean that the 
teacher should not have high ideals, but that she should 
not expect muscular control. She should want the child's 
best, but not unreasonable marvels. Doing small writing 
calls for such tense muscular adjustment that it proves a 
fertile source of trouble for the eyes and the whole nervous 
system. Watching a little child who is working freely with 
pencil or crayon, one observes that he makes wild, aimless 
movements, producing nothing in particular, — a mere 
snarl of lines, — but that he works with a large swing of the 
muscles always. Watching a class of little children write, 
one sees them shaping each letter with great care and work- 
ing, usually, with movements of the fingers only. There is 
a place where the first-described movement ends and the 

[ 222 ] 



WRITING 

child really tries to make something, but there is a distinct 
difference between what he does naturally, even at this 
time, and what he is often called upon to attempt in his 
writing lessons. Children have little need of writing as a 
vehicle of expression below the third grade, so the work 
for the first year or so should consist of preparation for 
future writing rather than writing itself. Teachers usually 
set their standard for lower-grade writing too high, just 
as they place it too low for drawing, expecting almost per- 
fect formation of letters in writing but accepting daubs in 
drawing without surprise. We need a readjustment in 
both cases. 

Character of the writing. Thought of the child's natu- 
ral mode of development brings to mind that the brain 
centers that govern the large muscular movements develop 
earliest. Thought of what we wish to obtain in higher- 
grade writing suggests that, freedom of movement being 
then desirable, we may early work along natural lines with 
profit. Recent ideas governing the teaching of writing are 
following this theory and making the work consist largely 
of exercises tending to produce muscular freedom and con- 
trol. For this work, use should be made of crayon and 
blackboard and later of large sheets of unruled paper, with 
the big kindergarten crayons or extra-large writing pencils. 
These implements the child may grasp with his small 
fingers, without the viselike grip with which he holds the 
ordinary pencil. His writing may be as big as he pleases, 
and if crooked, it is no matter, since it will grow smaller 
and straighter as rapidly as is necessary. 

Yet, to help in getting uniform size and straight writing 
easily, after a few weeks of absolutely free work at the 

[223] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

board, it is well to make lines from four to six inches 
apart, between which the movement exercises may be 
made. These lines should be placed low enough so that 
the child may reach without difficulty, and he should stand 
at arm's length from the board. Above each pupil's space 
should appear a copy of the required exercise, and it is 
better for him to watch the teacher as she makes these 
copies. The lines may be drawn very quickly if one makes 
use of a music-staff marker or a similar marker which 
a teacher may make for herself. All that is needed is a 
little wooden frame that will support two crayons at the 

desired distance apart — 
simply a stick for a 
handle, fastened to a 
stick with two holes 
bored through it. 
] After a short time 



U U part of the writing may 

be done on paper which has been creased to indicate the 
width of space for the exercises. The spaces should be 
kept broad for a long time, because if they are made 
narrow, the child falls at once into a finger movement. 
Till writing with the free-arm movement has become 
mechanical, broad spaces are absolutely necessary. 

Introduced to writing in this easy way, the little pupil 
may do many of the exercises which are employed in ad- 
vanced grades. He may make free-hand circles, right and 
left ovals, and all the usual movement exercises. After a 
little while he may begin to make the letters which involve 
the movements taken, doing first the exercise, then the let- 
ter. Ovals connected in a line — eeee — prepare for letters 

[224] 



WRITING 

like / and e ; this exercise — nnn — for m and n ; its re- 
verse — uuu — for i, /, u. This work should all be of good 
size and freely drawn. The pupils will naturally make their 
writing exercises with a bold, free movement. The teacher 
should never forget that its purpose is to secure muscular 
ease and power. One who watches it is surprised to see 
how easily the freedom of movement comes and how gaily 
and with how light a touch the child strikes in the letters. 
The ease attained with only a few weeks of practice is 
quite marvelous. When the pupil takes the various exer- 
cises readily and can apply them to letters, he may begin 
to write words. 

The method of doing the writing need vary little as the 
work goes on. No essential change is necessary. The 
writing grows finer, the lines straighter, the letters more 
perfect in shape. The pencil gradually grows a little 
smaller, though a large implement is always better for 
writing. The pen, by and by, is substituted for the pencil. 

To start a child writing at once with a pen is to equip 
him with the most difficult instrument at the start, which is 
contrary to the usual way of going about the taking up of 
any subject. When the pen comes into use, a penholder 
which is rather large at the base is better than the small 
one. The Boston guard, a rubber that has three flat 
places where the thumb and two fingers are to rest and 
that is fitted to the penholder, is an excellent device. This 
may be used far enough in the grades for correct pen 
holding to become mechanical. 

Position. The pupil needs to sit erect with feet on the 
floor. The position in which he faces the desk has advan- 
tages, though some use a slightly sidewise position. The 

[225] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

shoulders should be kept level. The right arm should go 
onto the desk far enough to allow of free movement, and 
the left should also rest there lightly. The left hand should 
move the paper as needed. The writing books and manuals 
give many good illustrations, and by means of these the 
teacher may easily learn correct positions and a right order 
of progress. It is often well to give general directions for 
position, though here, as well as in the drawing class, direc- 
tions for individual betterment of position, movement, and 
form should be given quietly to the individual alone. A 
nervous child is often greatly harassed by the continual 
grind of the teacher's voice and also grows so used to the 
sound of it that he fails to listen all the time to what she 
is saying. Because of this, directions are not heeded, and 
the pupil is blamed for what is really the teacher's fault. 

Precept, example, and constant practice needed. The 
teacher should write much upon the board so the children 
may see what is wanted and how to get it. It is easy to 
do good board work with a little practice. Enthusiasm on 
the part of the teacher will produce enthusiasm on the 
part of the child, which is a particularly important thing 
in learning to write. If a pupil wants to write well and is 
told how, he will usually become able. Power to control 
and guide the muscles is of more value than perfect writ- 
ing, yet more and more the child should be brought to a 
state of mind in which he desires most earnestly not only 
to write easily and rapidly but. also to write well. 

It is not sufficient to write in a correct way during the 
writing period and carelessly for other exercises. All writ- 
ing should be done as well as possible and as quickly as 
is compatible with good work. Writing is needed as an 

[226] 



WRITING 

implement, and one should learn to use it as a means of 
as rapid expression as may be. 

Often, in grammar grades, rapid growth brings inability 
to control the muscles, and the effect shows in the writing. 
The teacher should understand this and have patience, yet 
in a kindly way she should bring the pupil to the place 
where he may be depended upon to write his best. 

The teacher's example should encourage neat, careful 
writing. Many teachers present such poor writing in all 
their work as to completely destroy the value of the writing 
lessons. Others put on formal board work carefully, but any 
writing for illustration of the points of the lesson is done 
hastily and carelessly. Precept and example should go hand 
in hand, and the teaching should be continuous. It is 
worth much time and trouble to make the children skillful in 
the art of writing. To write easily and well is an accomplish- 
ment that produces great satisfaction in life after the school 
days are over. 

REFERENCES 

Berry Writing Books. B. D. Berry Co. 

Clark. Graded Writing Textbooks. Ginn and Company. 

Clark. Public School Penmanship. Ginn and Company. 

Hammock. New Barnes Writing Books. The A. S. Barnes Com- 
pany. 

Mills. Business Penmanship. American Book Company. 

Palmer Method of Writing. A. N. Palmer Co. 

Shaylor. Book of Alphabets. Ginn and Company. 

Thorndike. Thorndike Handwriting Scale. Columbia University 
Press, New York. 

Zaner Writing Manuals. Zaner & Bloser Co. 



[227] 



CHAPTER XXII 

MUSIC 

Ways and means. It is surprising to know how many- 
teachers have no music in their schools, not even in con- 
nection with morning exercises, and how many others have 
it only in that connection. Musical power is in a sense 
a heaven-bestowed gift, and people lacking it are to be 
pitied, but even nonmusical teachers may have music to 
a slight degree in school if they are willing to work for 
it as much as for other things. Many teachers who regard 
themselves as unfit to teach music have sufficient latent 
power so that a few lessons might qualify them to do some 
simple work in the subject. Others, who lack power to 
sing but have a musical ear, may teach the children by 
note, using the pitch pipe and presenting all new exer- 
cises and songs by note from the board, book, or chart. 
There are usually in school some really musical children, 
and judicious use may be made of these, having them sing 
the exercises as a model for the others. If the teacher is 
absolutely lacking in both voice and ear, sometimes she 
has to frankly say so and to intrust whatever work is done 
in music to some older child who is gifted in this line. She 
should not make the mistake of resigning the whole thing 
in such a case. She, herself, should discipline her school 
and furnish teaching suggestions and stimulation as in 
any other class. 

[228] 



MUSIC 

Need of stimulus. Too often both teacher and pupils 
have the idea that since music is an aesthetic study and 
appeals so strongly to the feelings, it need be attended to 
only as the children feel like doing it. This is wrong. 
Music often has to be pounded in, in the face of indif- 
ference or even opposition. All methods should be sought 
for here, as in connection with other subjects ; every legiti- 
mate stimulus to learning should be employed. The pupil 
should bring to his music class the same sense of responsi- 
bility as well as the same feeling of pleasure that he brings 
to other subjects. Strong appeal should be made to the 
feelings, of course. The child should want to sing and 
should feel the advantages that come from music. 

Character of work. The work with the little children 
should place emphasis on rote songs, so selected as to give 
drill on the scales and easy intervals. Often these songs 
may be accompanied by motions for the sake of adding 
interest. In addition to the rote songs there should be 
drill upon scales and intervals — simple little exercises 
that get the pupil into the easy habit of singing freely and 
with fair correctness. Work should be done through all 
the grades in perfecting the child in the theory of music, 
though stress should be laid throughout on the singing of 
songs. He should have practice in both reading and writ- 
ing in the different keys, advancing as rapidly as his powers 
permit. Exercises should be given from board and chart 
as the children advance, and it is well to base the work 
upon some good system of school music ; otherwise it is 
apt to become very haphazard and devoid of results. 

Though most of the singing should be by the school, 
class, or division working together, yet frequent opportunity 

[229] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

should be given to all children to sing by themselves. 
If this work is begun early, the child no more fears 
to sing than he fears to draw or read before others. 
Monotones, though discouraging, are not incurable. The 
first-grade pupil who sings in a monotone will not be the 
star singer of the upper grades, but he may very likely by 
that time have acquired sufficient power so he may keep 
with the others. He should be given much individual prac- 
tice and some out-of-school work. The child who cannot 
sing well usually sings lustily. There is every reason for 
his singing but no especial reason why he should drown the 
others out. He, with all the others, should be impressed 
with the idea that loud singing is not always the best. 
From the very beginning emphasis should be laid upon 
sweet, true, light, musical tones — not loud singing but sweet 
singing. This idea once started should never be forgotten. 

Perfection not to be too early expected. It is not to be 
supposed that children will early learn all the keys or that 
they will learn to read music easily, any more than we can 
be sure they will do long division correctly after the first 
presentation, but continued drill, holding the child respon- 
sible, will in time produce good results. Even if these results 
may not be obtained, one can accomplish the great aim of 
music in our schools — the giving of power to sing songs 
and to appreciate them. 

All should sing. When the boys get to the age when 
they stop singing, they should be made to go on again. 
There is no reason why they should give up singing any 
more than reading or any other school exercise. When 
the voices get uncertain, care should be taken, but it 
does not usually hurt the big grammar-school boys to 

[230] 



MUSIC 

sing with the rest. At this time they may be stimulated 
by the teacher's personal influence, by their desire to sing 
when they go to college, by the reminder that music is 
part of the required work of the school course, and in 
many other ways. Nevertheless, it is not well to drive 
boys out of school because at the balky age they feel that 
they cannot do anything in which they may not distinguish 
themselves. The teacher's object at this time should be 
not so much good singing as some singing. Classes may 
be permitted at this stage to sing songs rather than exer- 
cises, if songs are what the children like, and to sing 
songs attractive to them rather than some others, though the 
line should be drawn outside of mere street songs. There 
are varieties of good music. 

Treatment in rural schools. In a rural school the chil- 
dren may be formed into two divisions, and the daily music 
work may include the singing of songs by the school, then 
exercises with each division on alternate days. 

Tactics of the music recitation. During a singing lesson 
the children should sit in an upright position, not lounging 
or stooping, and the lesson should go along with the 
zest and precision that mark any other school exercise. In 
music particularly, the pupils should be kept in a happy 
mood. Stimulated in the right way, they will sing with all 
their souls and hearts as well as with all their little voices. 
Music furnishes sufficient change from other lessons so that 
it may sometimes be taken when children are tired and in 
need of change. The hard drill exercises, however, should 
be given when the class is fresh and ready for earnest work. 
The teacher must needs keep herself in the right mood if 
she is to make of the lesson all that can be made of music. 

[231] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Training in appreciation. Music ranks with literature 
and drawing as an efficient help in keeping a school in a 
right attitude and increasing in the children the upward 
impulse which is so helpful. This subject is probably sur- 
passed by no other save literature in its power to give 
pleasure, so it becomes the teacher's imperative duty to 
train the children by every possible means to musical ap- 
preciation. In these days of opportunity we are greatly 
remiss if there grows up a generation that prefers " rag 
time " to the music of the masters. The talking machine 
brings excellent music within easy reach, since there is 
hardly a neighborhood in which it is not represented. In a 
certain school a Victrola concert, given in school hours once 
a month, furnishes the greatest delight to all the assembled 
grades. Each concert brings smaller children escorted by 
smiling hosts or hostesses. Parents also appear, because 
the children " like the music " and so urge attendance. 

No teacher should hesitate to ask anyone in the neigh- 
borhood to share with the children her pianola or talking 
machine. Of course the calls should not be too frequent ; 
the entertainment should be at the convenience of the 
owner and presided over by her. With all courtesy the 
teacher should make it plain that she wishes the children 
to hear at these times only the truly good selections. Any 
teacher who has tact can convey this information in a way 
which will give no offense. If piano or organ be the only 
instrument at hand, much may be done by means of either 
of these if the player be one who has a fair execution and a 
trained taste. If none of these things are to be obtained, 
one may perhaps find some one with a true, sweet voice, 
who will occasionally come in and sing for the children. 

[232] 



MUSIC 

One never knows till she asks how willing people are to 
do things for the schools. We beg favors for churches 
and for societies of all kinds, and there is no reason why 
we should not ask also for the schools, which are the most 
important organizations that exist in any community. 

REFERENCES 

Betz. Gems of School Song. American Book Company. 

Bowen. Manual of Music for Teachers of Elementary Schools. 
The A. S. Barnes Company. 

Gaynor. Songs for Children. Oliver Ditson Company. 

Kastman and Kohler. Swedish Song Games. Ginn and Company. 

McLaughlin and Gilchrist. Song Reader. Ginn and Company. 

McLaughlin, Hamblin, and Brick. New School Music Primer. 
Ginn and Company. 

New Educational Music Course, First and Second Music Readers. 
Ginn and Company. 

New Educational Music Course, Teachers' Edition. Ginn and Com- 
pany. 

Newton. Introductory Sight-Singing Melodies. Ginn and Company. 

Newton. Music in the Public Schools. Ginn and Company. 

Palmer. Twelve Songs Illustrated. Ginn and Company. 

Pray. Motion Songs for Public Schools. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Riley and Gaynor. Lilts and Lyrics. Clayton F. Summy Company. 

Riley and Gaynor. Songs of the Child's World, Books I and II. 
The John Church Company. 

Silver Song Series. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

Songs in Season. A. Flanagan Company. 

Walker and Jenks. Songs and Games for Little Ones. Oliver 
Ditson Company. 



[233] 



CHAPTER XXIII 
DESK WORK 

Need of desk work. In the rural school particularly, but 
also in any school, there is a large amount of time during 
which the child is not directly engaged in recitation. As 
he grows older he becomes more and more able to get 
knowledge for himself from books, but even an older child 
gets this power slowly, and the little one has it not at all. 
His time outside of recitation must be wasted, and worse, 
unless some means be found of employing him in such a 
way as to train him to right-working habits and furnish him 
a means of learning. In the old-time school this problem 
was unsolved, but the modern education has reached it 
through what is called educative desk work. Even rather 
lately this work was regarded as useless or, at its best, as 
only a means of keeping the children happy and out of 
mischief; but one who really studies the subject makes the 
desk work as truly a way of instruction as is furnished by 
books — often a much better means than that furnished, 
even to older children, by books alone. 

A child needs to be developed along all lines. He needs 
to learn the habit of concentrated attention, of digging till 
he has accomplished something, the habit of success. He 
needs skill with his fingers and power to direct his fingers. 
He needs training in nice discrimination, noticing resem- 
blances and differences, and he needs direct training towards 

[234] 



DESK WORK 

skill in reading, number, drawing, language, music, and 
all the school subjects. Desk work, properly planned, will 
give him all of these. Work may be selected that will 
both directly and indirectly teach these subjects last men- 
tioned. For example, a child may have for work the build- 
ing of sentences from words, that is, direct instruction in 
the reading line ; or he may have work which trains him to 
a knowledge of form — indirect instruction toward reading 
power, since all power to read depends upon ability to dis- 
criminate minute differences in form of letters and words. 

Teacher should see purpose of work. The teacher should 
regard her desk work as work and important work, not as 
something to show off with. Unless she so considers it, 
she should not use it. It should be educative, given with 
a direct purpose. When it has served this purpose it 
should be discarded. A first-grade child may get power 
by matching cut-up pictures, but when he can put them 
together fairly well they have served their purpose for in- 
struction ; they simply amuse, so usually there would be 
little value in assigning cut-up pictures to a third grade. 
The same holds true of other lines of work. Discarding 
desk work as outgrown does not always mean putting 
it aside. It may mean using it in another way. A child 
may match tablets by color, shape, or size, in the first few 
weeks of school, and he may get good training in the 
third grade by arranging the same tablets suitably for a 
border or surface. 

Variety necessary for interest. Interest needs to be 
kept up constantly, so drill for the same purpose should 
be given in different ways. A class needing drill on num- 
ber combinations to twenty might find the answer tablets 

[ 2 35] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 



to tablets with the number combinations written vertically, 
, or horizontally |6 -4[ [2] ; or they might build 



like this 





the combinations, as @ HE 130 > ortne y might find all 
the combinations whose answer is a certain number. These 
tablets might be made with the hectograph or with black 
calendar figures or with colored calendar figures or with 
words. By means of such variety, interest is heightened 
and the varying tastes of the children are all met. The 
boy who would never without a struggle do his number 
work, which usually consisted of copying combinations 
and writing the answer, thought the work with vertically 
arranged combinations to be matched to the answer the 
very best of all the desk work. One of the troubles in 
using desk work with children just entering school arises 
from the inability to teach as many kinds of work as are 
needed to keep the children employed without doing the 
same over till they are weary of it, a matter needing careful 
planning on the teacher's part. 

Need of explanation. If desk work is to accomplish its 
mission, it must be understood by the children, and time 
for explanation may well be taken from class-work time. 
It is a profitable investment, as the child is introduced 
through it to a means of drill that he may work at for 
many hours independently. 

How to be regarded by the child. Children often fail 
to do the given work. Failure arises from not understand- 
ing how to do it or sometimes through a feeling that it 
does not amount to much. The child should be made to 
see its importance, to regard it as his work and its accom- 
plishment as worth while. This attitude is helped by the 

[236] 



DESK WORK 

teacher's showing her sense of its value, through seeing 
that it is done and approving its satisfactory completion. 
If she does not look at it, there is little incentive to the 
pupil to work. A cursory glance and a word or two produce 
satisfactory results. 

The child should be expected to keep at his work till it 
is finished, and the signal for completed work should be 
folded hands. Such do no mischief. The teacher should 
remember that little children accomplish tasks very rapidly 
and that half the troubles in school come from the fact 
that not enough work is exacted to keep the children as 
busy as they can be, every minute. Children will do vary- 
ing amounts of this, as of other work. It is well to give 
out a second kind to be done when the first is finished, 
though this is not always necessary. 

Decision as to kind. The kind to be done should be 
decided by the teacher, who should try to apportion it so 
that drill in the different subjects will be furnished — work 
leading to arithmetic for one period, reading for another ; 
spelling, drawing, and other subjects, coming along in turn. 
When special drill is needed in a subject this kind of work 
should be increased. If choice is left with the pupil, he 
emphasizes the kind he likes best and often neglects the 
kind he needs. Sometimes, however, a choice may be 
given, particularly as a reward. 

Work should be attractive and hygienic. All desk 
work should have elements of beauty and should be so 
planned that it cannot harm the pupil physically. Beauty, 
in a child's eyes, usually means variety and brightness. 
Bright little pictures to be matched to words, and colored 
pegs, sticks, and tablets rather than plain ones, are, then, 
the better thing. No work should be given that can strain 

[237] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

eyes or nerves because of dimness or size. The hecto- 
graphed tablets should be brightly printed; the letters, 
figures, and slips upon which the work is written should 
be large. Stringing tiny beads, sewing with fine mate- 
rials or with tiny perforations, underlining known words in 
the print of ordinary newspapers, and all such things are 
criminal work to give. 

Use with older grades. Desk work is intended mainly 
for little children. The first, second, and third grades use 
it most profitably. Sometimes older children do not want 
to do it, because it seems like baby work. Sometimes they 
are eager to secure the fun of it. There are some kinds 
of work well adapted to larger pupils, as some of the 
music material, some of the arithmetic, and much of the 
language work. Selecting from a box of miscellaneous 
words those that are names of objects, those that describe 
objects, or those that express action is excellent drill. 
Finding the words that make the subjects and those that 
make the predicates of given sentences, arranging com- 
parison of adjectives, principal parts of verbs, and conju- 
gation of verbs furnish work which would do no harm in 
the highest grades. 

Sources of material. The desk work may largely be 
made with hectograph, development paper — oak tag — 
stub pen, colored paper, calendars, little pictures from maga- 
zines or other advertisements. Older children may make it 
for the younger as a part of their industrial work. Desk 
work may be bought from the various firms that deal in 
such materials, — like the J. L. Hammett Company, the 
Milton Bradley Company, and D. H. Knowlton & Co., — 
but usually the necessary work can be made. 

[238] 



DESK WORK 

Care of material. The material may be kept in enve- 
lopes, in little boxes, or — some kinds — in one large box. 
The little-box way is best, and discarded thread or silk 
boxes may be obtained at any store. The dealers will save 
them for a teacher who explains the purpose for which 
they are to be used. A set of small boxes of one kind of 
work may be kept in one large .box for convenience in dis- 
tribution. Each little box should be labeled and numbered. 
If the tablets of each box are also numbered to correspond 
with the box, the sorting is made easy, as one can see at a 
glance where each piece belongs. Several times a year in 
a small school, as often as possible in a larger one, the 
desk work should be gone over and put thoroughly in order. 
Older pupils may do much of this, certain pupils having 
charge of different kinds of work. Breaking, marking, 
stealing the work, should all be looked out for. Many a 
moral lesson may be given through this means. 

Distribution of work. The pupils should usually dis- 
tribute and collect the work. It saves the teacher's time 
and furnishes training for the children. They will do it 
awkwardly at first, but that is a greater reason for their 
doing it. The little people to whom the boxes are given 
should be trained to let them alone till told to open them. 
The teacher may explain how the material is to be used and 
then give the signal for opening the boxes. To wait for this 
signal is a training to self-restraint that in itself is of value. 

No teacher who has carefully worked out the subject, 
planning work to meet the needs of a class and observing 
the results gained by use of the various kinds, will there- 
after need to be urged to make educative desk work fill a 
large place in her primary teaching. 

[239] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

A FEW KINDS THAT ARE PARTICULARLY USEFUL 
For Reading 

Rhymes and words. The child to build the rhymes or put the 
word tablets upon corresponding words of rhyme. ' These may be 
both written and printed, and type sentences in prose may be 
substituted for rhymes. 

Tablets, containing pictures — colored, uncolored, or hectographed 
— together with written or printed words. These are to be matched 
to tablets containing written or printed words. 

Tablets containing pictures only. These are to be matched to 
tablets with words. A step in advance of the preceding work. 

Written and printed words which are to be matched to each other. 

Tablets containing common words. These are to be used in 
building sentences. 

All of these may be used during the sight reading. When read- 
ing by the phonetic method is reached, the child may continue all of 
above work and may have the following in addition : 

Letters, to build words. 

Initials, to match to endings to build words. 

Words and letters, to match the letter to the word beginning with it. 

Words containing a common element, to match to cards having 
the common element only. 

For Language and Grammar 

Much of the reading material. 

Pictures with words below, to write story containing words. 

Pictures without words, to serve as a basis for a story. 

Tablets with parts of speech, to put in groups those which are 
usually verbs or nouns or adjectives or other parts of speech. 

Singulars and plurals. 

Adjectives — positive, comparative, superlative. 

Verbs — principal parts. 

Pronouns — declensions. 

Words, to build sentences for drill on correct forms, like " It is I," 
" Whom did you see ? " 

Abbreviations, to match to words. 

[240] 



DESK WORK 

For Arithmetic 

Tablets with number combinations written vertically, to match to 
answer. 

Tablets with number combinations written horizontally, to match 
to answer. 

Tablets containing single figure or sign, to build combinations and 
answers. 

Tablets with numbers and signs, to build multiplication tables. 

Matching dominoes. 

Finding equivalents in dominoes. 

Cards with varying number of holes punched, to match those 
having the same number. 

Tablets with numbers, to arrange in order as in counting. 

Tablets, to build tables of denominate numbers. 

Equivalents in denominate numbers to match ; for example, 
I qt. = 2 pts. 

Measures or surfaces, to find equivalents in measures or surfaces ; 
for example, an 8-inch length to be matched to a 6 and a 2, to a 7 
and a 1, to four 2's. 

The desk work in number may be varied by using written and 
printed words or figures, by making with hectograph, or by employing 
black or colored calendar figures. 

Many modifications of suggested work may be made. 

For desk work also, the pupils may do many things such as are 
mentioned under the class drills in number, like making the multipli- 
cation tables in squares or constructing magic squares. Such work 
is to be found illustrated in most books on elementary arithmetic. 

For Geography 

Tablets with counties of own state, to arrange alphabetically. 
Tablets with cities of own state, to arrange alphabetically. 
Miscellaneous tablets, to pick out the ones which name rivers, 
seas, bays, cities, capes, or islands. 

Tablets, to match states, capitals, and largest cities. 
Names of states, to match to products. 
Cut-out maps, to put states or countries in proper places. 
Outline maps, to fill in in various ways. 

[241] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

For Drawing 

Sticks, to match for color. 

Tablets, to match for color. 

Tablets, to match for form. 

Sticks and tablets, to make designs. 

Color tablets, to be matched to name tablets. 

Building the spectrum. 

Placing adjacent colors of spectrum. 

Coloring pictures. 

Free work with clay or plasticine. 

Work for illustration with clay or plasticine. 

Paper folding and cutting. 

Paper cutting or tearing, to represent stories, games, occupations. 

Cutting figures from wall paper. 

Cutting figures from advertising catalogues. 

For Miscellaneous Drill 

Pictures of weather signals, to be matched to proper explanatory 
words. 

Names of months, to build calendars. 

Names of days, to build weeks. 

Names of months, to match to names of seasons. 

Letters, to build words for spelling drill. 

Word tablets, to build scales or intervals as indicated on staff. 

Tablets with signatures, to match to music. 

Tablets with names of keys, to match to staff exercises. 

Cut-up pictures, to put together. 

Cards punched with large holes in outlines of objects, to be sewed 
with coarse lacings. 

Stringing kindergarten beads. 

Stringing berries, seeds, straws, and other natural objects. 

REFERENCES 

Many of the books named under Industrial Work furnish sugges- 
tions that may help here. 
Arnold. Plans for Busy Work. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

[242] 



DESK WORK 

Arnold. Waymarks for Teachers. Silver, Burdett & Company. 

Arnold. With Pencil and Pen. Ginn and Company. 

Cobb. Busy Builders' Book. Ginn and Company. 

George. Teachers' Plan Books. A. Flanagan Company. 

Kindergarten supplies of various sorts, including much material men- 
tioned here, may be obtained from the J. L. Hammett Company, 
Boston ; the Milton Bradley Company, Boston ; Edward E. Babb 
and Company, Boston ; the Dennison Manufacturing Co., Boston ; 
D. H. Knowlton & Co., Farmington, Maine ; and from many like 
sources. (See the lists given in the chapter on apparatus.) 



[ 2 43 ] 



CHAPTER XXIV 

INDUSTRIAL WORK 

Justification of such work. Industrial work or handwork 
has been introduced into school in the belief that the child 
who is skillful with his hands, while slow in purely mental 
work, needs a chance, and that the child who is unskillful 
with his hands needs to acquire a modicum of power in 
that direction. Manual work trains not only the hands 
which execute but the brain which directs. It has every 
excuse for being. 

Actual observation proves that much work of this sort 
may be done with but little loss in such work as has for 
years formed the school courses. In one school where 
much industrial work has been done for several years little 
apparent loss in regular progress has appeared. The chil- 
dren to all appearance cover the ground they have always 
covered. There may be a leak somewhere, but it does not 
show. The explanation seems to be that the children work 
so much more busily in anticipation of extra time for 
manual industry that much of the former waste of time 
is eliminated. Little attention is given to whispering, 
giggling, note writing, or other forms of idleness or mis- 
chief. The regular lessons are put through with all speed, 
and the entire change of occupation furnished by the 
handwork takes away greatly the element of fatigue. Any 
teacher who doubts this may recall the effect upon herself 

[244] 



INDUSTRIAL WORK 

when nervously tired if she busies herself with some light 
piece of plain sewing or fancywork. The pleasure fur- 
nished by the work, together with satisfaction in the results, 
has its great effect. 

Paper and cardboard work. One of the things easiest 
to be done, and for which material may be secured with 
least trouble, is paper and cardboard construction. Rich's 
book called " Cardboard Construction " will suggest to the 
teacher much work in construction of various boxes, trays, 
wall pockets, baskets, and things of that sort. Many of 
these are easy to make and may be attempted by first- 
grade children, while some of the things may be made 
by pupils of fifth or sixth grade with profit. The older 
children may also do cardboard work, and things to be 
constructed are easily thought of, quite elaborate boxes, 
blotting pads, portfolios, and booklets resulting. The port- 
folios, the covers to boxes and booklets, and the corners 
of the pads may be decorated with colored pencils or with 
water colors. Picture cutting and mounting may be done, 
and valentines, Christmas cards, Thanksgiving menus, 
May baskets, may come at the proper seasons. Toy furni- 
ture may be made by all the grades, and the furnishing of 
dolls' houses brings an absorbing pleasure. For this work 
with the little children, dictation may be used or the pat- 
terns may be drawn for them to cut out. Later they may 
mark around a pattern ; later still copy one from measure- 
ments ; and finally, when they are old enough, invent their 
own patterns. 

Material for the work is suggested in Miss Rich's book, 
but for all practical purposes the teacher may use stiff 
drawing paper or the so-called studio papers which may 

[ 2 45] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

be procured from any school-supply house. Printing estab- 
lishments will sometimes furnish them more cheaply. 
Many of the articles may be constructed from common 
cartridge paper, such as is used for covering walls. It 
is cheaper and works very well if it is unrolled and 
pressed flat. 

Sewing. Sewing is easily introduced into any school 
and may vary from very simple plain sewing to embroidery 
and elaborate fancywork. Plain sewing is usually best. 
Patton's "Home and School Sewing" and Hapgood's 
" School Needlework " are very helpful books, and either 
will insure the teacher's going about things in the right 
way. Basting, running, gathering, hemming, overcasting, 
backstitching, are necessary to be taught and may be done 
through the making of articles calling for the different 
stitches. The youngest children — sewing should not start 
before the third year — may practice stitches on canvas or 
may run along lines drawn with a pencil on soft white 
cloth, to learn how, but it is better to make things as soon 
as possible. Towels may be hemmed in the common way or 
by the French hemstitch, or napkin stitch. Small straight 
aprons may be made, and dolls' clothes attempted. Older 
children may do more elaborate work, — hemstitching and 
embroidery stitches, — but plain sewing is what is really best 
fitted for most school work. It is not a good plan usually 
to let the girls take their sewing home, for mothers are 
too prone to pick out the stitches as not satisfactory or at 
any rate to finish the garment. During the work at school 
the children should be taught right ways of sewing and not 
allowed to work awkwardly, even if they seem to produce 
better results in that way. 

[246] 



INDUSTRIAL WORK 

It is an excellent idea for the older girls to dress a 
school^ doll. This has proved a fascinating employment, 
and many fine stitches have been set in its accomplish- 
ment. The seams are short, and many different kinds of 
sewing are needed. Much information may be picked up 
in regard to fitting. The teacher may cut patterns, or they 
may be bought. The Jenny Wren patterns issued by the 
Delineator are helpful, as are also those recommended by 
the Goodwin " Course in Sewing." The doll with her ward- 
robe may usually be disposed of at some fair, and enough 
realized to cover the expense. The doll should not be too 
small, which renders the handling of the garments difficult. 

The older girls may also be taught the simple crochet 
stitches and make what they please. The wash cloth is 
an easy article, and it may be made by whatever stitch one 
wishes to teach. Plain knitting may be taught also. 

Boys should not be given the general sewing, but it 
would be well to teach them to darn a stocking, put on 
a patch, and sew on various kinds of buttons, in case of 
future emergencies; so when such work is in progress 
all may take part. 

Sewing may include, besides that just discussed, work 
like sewing on burlap or similar material for the construc- 
tion of needlebooks, napkin rings, and all such articles. 
The children may also sew braids made from raffia into 
baskets, frames, hats, mats, and other small articles. In 
connection with the doll-dressing, hats may be made in 
this way or from straw braid if that is available. Mats may 
be sewed from the results of the spool knitting, which fur- 
nishes good work for the younger children. The materials 
being so simple, consisting of a spool with four pins 

[247] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

driven into it and odd bits of yarn that may be found in 
any darning basket, nearly all children are easily equipped. 
Reins are the most favored product, but mats are also 
popular. 

Weaving. Weaving is a pleasing form of industrial 
work. The little children may learn it by means of the 
common kindergarten mats or similar ones constructed of 
brown paper. Preparing these last might form handwork 
for some of the older pupils. Mats for learning may be 
made also from enamel cloth. The paper mats with bright 
colors give much pleasure to the children and may be 
made into cornucopias, May baskets, and other articles, with 
a little adjustment. The strips should always be wide, and 
children should not be allowed to do such fine weaving as 
to try the eyes. 

Much weaving may be done on looms constructed of 
cardboard, having notched edges or holes punched near 
the edges around or through which the warp may be 
strung. Such looms may be used for making wash cloths 
out of cheesecloth cut in bias strips about half an inch wide 
and frayed or fringed at the edges. On these looms dolls' 
hammocks may be made also and rugs for dolls' houses. 
The warp for these may be common white twine. This is 
more cheaply obtained at the dry-goods stores, where it is 
used for doing up bundles. Jute may be purchased at stores 
where twines of different sorts are bought, more cheaply 
than at the school-supply houses. Holders may be made of 
jute warp and woof, though a wooden loom is better for 
these. Wooden looms may be made easily by nailing to- 
gether four smooth strips of wood and then driving tiny 
nails along two opposite ends, a quarter of an inch apart. 

[248] 



INDUSTRIAL WORK 

A wire fastened along each side prevents the mat being 
pulled in too much. In the same way knitting needles 
may be run through the cardboard looms to serve the 
same purpose. The Bartlett loom is a good cardboard 
loom for weaving little articles of worsted, like caps, capes, 
hoods, and skirts. This loom may be obtained from the 
manufacturer, or its equivalent may be easily made. From 
the J. L. Hammett Company one may get for a dollar 
samples of all these Bartlett looms, partly strung so as to 
show the way of working, together with a book telling how 
to make the various articles. The cost of each thing 
amounts to two or three cents. 

Raffia. Raffia may be employed for many things and is 
a favorite material. It may be bought very cheaply in the 
natural colors, and one may dye it for one's self; or it may 
be purchased already colored. The natural costs about 
twenty cents a pound and the colored fifty, if purchased 
from the regular school-supply houses, but it may be 
bought in natural colors at better terms at the seed stores. 
The cheapest source that I know is the McHutchison 
Company, New York, which sells it at a cost not much 
more than half as great as that usually charged, if several 
pounds are purchased. Mats and sofa-pillow covers woven 
of raffia are very pleasing, and the covers are particularly 
useful for piazzas. Raffia spread smoothly and wound over 
a pasteboard foundation may serve for constructing pic- 
ture frames, boxes, needlebook covers, and other attractive 
objects. 

Knotting. Raffia may be used for knotting. Most books 
on basket work give directions for simple knots with which 
may be made bags, dolls' hammocks, and other simple 

[249] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

articles. Children who live where such things are useful 
like to make dip-nets, for which macrame cord is the best 
material. 

Basketry. Perhaps the most interesting manual work, 
and that furnishing most variety, is basketry ; so many 
different materials may be used in so many different ways. 
Baskets and mats may be woven from reeds. This is too 
hard for the fingers of younger children, but the results 
are so quickly obtained that the older ones are eager for 
the work. Reeds of different sizes — from one, the finest, 
to eight and nine — may be bought. Sizes two and three 
are the most useful. Reeds may be bought so cheaply 
from F. B. Alexander, West Newton, Massachusetts, that 
a good-sized basket costs only a few cents. There are 
many good books on basketry, such as White's " How to 
Make Baskets " and " More Baskets and How to Make 
Them." 

If it is wished, the reeds may be dyed with Easy Dye 
before the weaving, or the completed baskets may be 
dipped. Jap-a-lac applied with a brush gives a pretty finish, 
as do the wood stains. The children may produce pleasing 
effects by use of the juices from flower petals and other 
natural materials, and time is of so little value to young 
children that they are willing to experiment. Reeds take 
all dyes easily, but raffia needs to soak overnight in clear 
warm water, or for an hour or so in strong soda water, 
before dyeing. 

Many other materials may be used for weaving mats and 
baskets, like rushes, dried grasses and roots, corn husks, 
and any natural material that has length and is tough 
when dry. Good wastebaskets and workbaskets may be 

[250] 



INDUSTRIAL WORK 

made with reeds starting from a wooden base, holes being 
bored to hold the reeds, which are fastened with glue. 
Around these uprights any material may be woven. 

Sewed baskets take longer than woven ones but are very 
satisfactory. Reeds, raffia, husks, or grasses are used for 
the foundation, and the sewing is done with raffia or other 
similar material. These baskets, once started by aid of the 
teacher, usually present no difficulties. In starting when 
reeds form the foundation, the end must be sharpened to 
a long point and soaked till very pliable. Natural raffia is 
used most frequently for the sewing, the colored furnish- 
ing ornamentation in stripes or figures. The rope founda- 
tion is very satisfactory for a sewed basket for younger 
children. Rope may be bought by the pound at the produce 
stores. It is soft and pliable and easily worked. 

A rather quicker method than sewing is presented in 
the wound basket, in which results are obtained by wind- 
ing reeds around reed spokes by means of raffia. There 
is almost no limit to the work that may be done in basket 
making, and it is interesting to watch children grow in 
skill, some children of grammar-school age producing very 
beautiful results. Linings of silk or silkaline may be 
added, and these contribute much to the attractiveness 
of the work. 

Chair caning-. Chair caning is good work and easily 
done by grammar-school children. This side of the indus- 
trial work seems so practical that parents are immediately 
interested. Chair cane may be obtained from Alexander's, 
and directions for caning are given in White's book on 
basketry. The old seat, cut out, will give assistance in 
directing. The cane is best used slightly damp. It is held 

[25i] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

in place as woven, by small wooden pegs which are thrust 
into the holes and moved along as needed. The caning 
goes from back to front, then from side to side, then from 
back to front again in the same holes, then from side to 
side to make a mesh, then from corner to corner and from 
opposite corner to corner, finally being finished by a bind- 
ing cane, slightly wider. Caning is particularly good work 
for boys. 

Whittling. Whittling may be done by both boys and 
girls but is preferred by the boys. Larsson's book " Ele- 
mentary Sloyd and Whittling" gives good suggestions. 
A kitchen paring knife is better than a boy's pocketknife, 
which is apt to close unexpectedly. The pupil should be 
taught to whittle from him instead of towards the body. 
Soft wood, like pine from the wood pile or an old box and 
cedar from cigar boxes, furnishes good material. Thread 
winders, buttons for cupboard doors, key tags, small picture 
frames, — in shape, oblong, round, or elliptical, — pen- 
holders, and many similar things may be made. 

Stenciling. Stenciling is good work and is enjoyed by 
boys and girls. Sofa-pillow covers, bags, and draperies may 
be constructed. Denim, linen, scrim, or any smooth mate- 
rial may be used. The design is marked on waxed or 
shellacked paper and cut out carefully. It may also be made 
on blotting paper, which is good, as it easily absorbs what 
would spread beyond the desired surface. The paper is 
then adjusted on the material, and the color applied to the 
holes of the pattern with a brush. Easy Dye, mixed ac- 
cording to the directions on the tube, may be used, as may 
common water-color and oil paints. The pupil should use 
what he can most easily secure. 

[252] 



INDUSTRIAL WORK 

Modeling. Clay modeling, while remarkably suited for 
work with little children, may be employed profitably by 
the older, who may make whatever they feel themselves 
capable of. An embryo sculptor would probably produce 
a pretty good statuette. Many animal forms may be made. 
Most of the children will stop with tiles and vases. An 
excellent way to make vases is by shaping the clay into 
a rope and then building it around and upon itself, mak- 
ing it strong and smooth by equal pressure of the fingers 
from within and without. Children should be trained to 
make the vases beautiful in shape. They may be dried and 
then painted if care is taken not to have the colors too wet. 
Painting directly from the pan of water color is best. 

Leather, iron, brass, and other kinds of work. If mate- 
rial can be obtained, work may be done in bent iron, tooled 
leather, or perforated brass. Sheets of brass, a block of 
soft wood, an awl, and a design stamped with carbon paper 
are all that are needed for the latter. Stamped patterns 
may be bought, but they are expensive. Sheets of brass 
can be bought cheaply by the pound at hardware stores. 
Any other manual work for which the child has the means 
may be done. If he has a jig saw or any tools at home, 
he should be encouraged to use them. The work should 
spring out of what is at hand. Many suggestions have 
been made, in the hope that some may fit. 

The dolls' house. It may be well to say an extra word 
about the dolls' house. A pasteboard box may represent a 
single room, the front of which is open. A wooden box will 
serve the same purpose. An elaborate house may be made 
by means of four sweet-corn boxes. A roof put on gives 
the attic, and one has kitchen and dining room downstairs, 

[253] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

sleeping room and living room above. Furnishings may 
be made from cardboard, small reeds, and like material. 
In one school, such a house was the joint property of nine 
grades. All contributed to its decoration. The older chil- 
dren designed and made wall papers and carpets. The 
middle and lower grades did the sewing on curtains and 
bed fixings. The middle-lower grades also wove draperies 
and rugs from raveled silkaline, as described with cheese- 
cloth. They wove a hammock for the attic, a pillow to go 
in it, a rug to go under it. All the younger children helped 
construct the furniture, which was made of studio paper — 
white in the sleeping room, green in the living room, gray 
in the dining room, and brown in the kitchen. All neces- 
sary furniture was made, including a kitchen stove and a 
sink with faucets. The older pupils made the house with 
some assistance. There was a window in each room and 
a door between adjoining rooms. Four third-grade boys, 
clad in long aprons, painted the outside. Dolls of proper 
size were to occupy it when finished. The idea was of 
great interest, and many mothers — yes, and fathers, — 
were dragged in to see the house. It may be gradually re- 
furnished and so prove a further means of training and 
enjoyment. Work M for something" always produces 
enthusiasm. 

Work in connection with special subjects. Little chil- 
dren take particular pleasure in constructing things appro- 
priate to special days, occupations, or the line of work 
they are doing. At the February and May patriotic times 
they may make soldiers' encampments ; at Christmas 
time, Christmas trees and fireplaces ; at Thanksgiving, 
Puritan houses and interiors ; at plowing and planting 

[254] 



INDUSTRIAL WORK 

and harvesting times, the horses, plows, rakes, barrels, and 
all the proper equipment. When they study the Dutch 
people, Holland may grace the sand table, its place to be 
taken later by an Eskimo or Indian village. In this way 
the children truly live the things they are studying. 

Cooking and household economics. Though the time is 
coming, in the near future, when simple apparatus for cook- 
ing will be installed in small schools, at present real cook- 
ing lessons are impracticable. Yet even now much may 
be done by simple talking lessons, in the way of teaching 
fundamental principles that underlie cooking and usual 
household operations. Considerable instruction may be 
given regarding the care of a home. Books like the "Ele- 
ments of the Theory and Practice of Cookery" will furnish 
substantial help in these lines. 

Gardening. It must not be forgotten that the school 
gardening belongs under the head of the industrial work. 
It should be emphasized as much as possible, and sugges- 
tions for home work and interest in all the home activities 
should abound at school. 

Time of doing work. Industrial lessons may be given 
Friday afternoons or at other times where it may conven- 
iently come. In some schools it has been substituted for 
some of the regular lessons, once a week. Most of this 
work, in schools with a crowded program, may be taken 
incidentally — the children working when their other as- 
signed tasks are accomplished. In schools where children 
bring dinners, the industrial work may occupy part of the 
noon time, particularly in cold weather. Much may be 
done at home if it is under school approval. Experience 
has shown that the time taken at school is hardly missed 

[255] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

in the accomplishment of required mental work. At any 
rate, since this work is just as valuable and necessary as 
so-called study, it should be had in school. 

Conduct of class. In giving the lessons, one gets on 
better if not too many work at a time, though a skilled 
teacher who has carefully planned her work can keep quite 
a class occupied. If a large class is to work on baskets, 
for example, it is often better to start a few at a time. 
Many times older pupils can help younger. Care is needed 
that the industrial time does not present a bedlam. Proper 
behavior should be required — a reasonable degree of keep- 
ing quiet, a prompt response to requests of teacher, and 
attention to her directions. Whenever several children 
need the same directions they should all attend and receive 
them together, as in that way a great saving of time is 
obtained. Care should be taken that eyes and nerves are 
not strained. Some children cannot do weaving or fine 
work of any kind. Much of the work should be done only 
a short while at a time, and then some change instituted. 

Material. Suggestions for materials have been made, 
some of which are repeated from the chapter on apparatus. 
In general, it may be said that nearly all materials for in- 
dustrial work may be obtained more cheaply at the places 
where such material is used in bulk or occurs as waste, 
rather than from school-supply firms. Much material for 
school industrial work may be got for a song — or without 
a song, for the asking — if a teacher keeps her eyes open. 
If materials cost, it has been found wise in many schools 
for the teacher to get them and then let the children pay 
for the completed articles. Seldom is the price of any one 
thing fifteen cents, and usually it is less than seven. 

[256] 



INDUSTRIAL WORK 

Making a start. A teacher feels herself to be under- 
taking a great deal in starting industrial work in her school, 
but, begun simply with the single thing one feels able to 
do, the work broadens steadily of itself. Suggestions come 
from all sides, and soon the teacher finds herself feeling 
confident and showing considerable power in this direction. 
The joy of the children and the help in discipline make 
it well worth while for any teacher to put forth consider- 
able effort. Of course, regular courses in cooking, sewing, 
and manual training are the best, and wherever possible 
it is hoped they may be had, but even with such courses 
a place may be found for many of the things here 
suggested. 

' REFERENCES 

Bartlett Loom Manual. J. L. Hammett Company. 

Dobbs. Primary Handwork. The Macmillan Company. 

Foster. Elementary Woodworking. Ginn and Company. 

Goodwin. Course in Sewing. Books I— III. Frank D. Beattys 
& Co. 

Greer. Food — What It Is and Does. Ginn and Company. 

Hapgood. School Needlework. Ginn and Company. 

Holland. Clay Modelling. Ginn and Company. 

Larsson. Elementary Sloyd and Whittling. Silver, Burdett & 
Company. 

Leavitt. Examples of Industrial Education. Ginn and Company. 

Ledyard. Primary Manual Work. Milton Bradley Company. 

Newell. Constructive Work for Schools without Special Equip- 
ment. Milton Bradley Company. 

Palen and Henderson. What and How. Milton Bradley Com- 
pany. 

Patton. Home and School Sewing. Newson & Company. 

Rich. Paper Sloyd. Ginn and Company. 

Ross. Wood Turning. Ginn and Company. 

Sage and Cooley. Occupations for Little Fingers. Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons. 

[257] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Sargent. Fine and Industrial Arts in Elementary Schools. Ginn 

and Company. 
Study of History in Elementary Schools. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
The Delineator. The Butterick Publishing Company. 
Todd. Hand-Loom Weaving. Rand, McNally & Company. 
Trybom and Heller. Correlated Handwork. J. L. Hammett 

Company. 
White. How to Make Baskets. Doubleday, Page & Company. 
White. More Baskets and How to Make Them. Doubleday, Page 

& Company. 
Williams and Fisher. Elements of the Theory and Practice of 

Cookery. The Macmillan Company. 
Wilson. Handbook of Domestic Science and Household Arts. 

Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston. 
A-B-C Weaving Looms. The A-B-C W eavm g Loom Company 

Toledo, Ohio. 
Bartlett Looms. J. L. Hammett Company. 
Day's White Paste. Diamond Paste Company, Broadway, New 

York. 
Easy Dye. J. L. Hammett Company. 
Jellitac. A powder for making paste. Arthur S. Hoyt, 90 West 

Broadway, New York. 
Leathers, and tools for working them. W. A. Hall, 119 Beach 

Street, Boston. 
Raffia. McHutchison Company, 1 7 Murray Street, New York. 
Reeds. F. B. Alexander, Watertown Street, West Newton, Mass. 
For other materials see the lists in the chapter on apparatus. 



[258] 



CHAPTER XXV 

SPECIAL EXERCISES 

Friday afternoon. For years Friday afternoon has been 
accepted as a special-exercise time in many schools, par- 
ticularly the rural one. Nowadays many teachers are put- 
ting the special work in here and there through the week 
instead, either by varying the regular work to include what 
might be called special or by substituting the specials for 
regular studies once a week, where they seem to work in 
well. For our purpose it may be well to retain the old 
idea of Friday afternoon, though the work may be arranged 
as suggested above if preferred. Into Friday, then, may 
go extra work in music or drawing and such nature lessons 
as cannot be included in the opening exercises or closing 
talk or in the geography, reading, or language periods. 
Here may go such of the industrial work or handwork as 
has not been taken incidentally or in connection with some 
allied work. This time may include spelling matches, and 
speaking pieces, and anything else that the teacher likes. 

Speaking pieces. The old idea of speaking pieces before 
the school has many things to recommend it, but it may be 
a source of friction — as when the big boy does not want 
to speak. Much of this trouble may be removed by hav- 
ing the exercises less formal and having the preparation 
made at school. The play element may also be brought in, 
having one part of the school entertain the rest. 

[259] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Visitation days. It is well to have public special exer- 
cises rather frequently, though these should usually em- 
body work that springs from the regular doings of the 
school. Sometimes a visitation day should be appointed, 
to which parents are specially invited. On such days 
almost the regular work of the school should go on, the 
object being to let the friends of the children know what 
happens regularly in the school day. The guests may be 
invited for morning or afternoon or both, as the teacher 
sees fit, and the intent should be to increase acquaintance 
and sympathy between school and home, not to show off 
in any way. On such days the teacher should have her 
advance work, with such reviews as come up naturally, 
and she should really teach and drill just as she usually 
does. In a rural school it is well occasionally to invite a 
neighboring school to visit and see a combination of regu- 
lar and special work. Such hospitality furnishes a strong 
incentive to good school work. 

Entertainments. The other kind of public exercises 
may preferably come in the afternoon and may consist of 
a specially prepared entertainment. Invitations and pro- 
grams may be made by the children. Sometimes the exer- 
cises may be general, sometimes for the celebration of 
a special occasion. If they are general, the children may 
say the poems and sing the songs they have learned dur- 
ing the term. They may dramatize some of the stories 
they have already played in school. The teacher or some 
of the children may tell a story. They may present some 
little play and several tableaus or illustrated dialogues. 
Some of their physical exercises may appear — marches 
with singing, drills, and the like. 

[260] 



SPECIAL EXERCISES 

While it is often well to have the public exercises gen- 
eral in character, it is a good idea to have exercises- for 
the celebration of special occasions. Washington's and 
Lincoln's birthdays coming so near each other, a public 
afternoon might center around their lives. Anything 
patriotic is suitable for such an occasion. Memorial Day 
also gives a chance for a patriotic celebration, and Christ- 
mas Day furnishes an opportunity for a host of beautiful 
things. Thanksgiving may include many things relative 
to the harvest, and much pleasure may arise from repre- 
senting scenes from the history of the Pilgrims and Puri- 
tans. Longfellow, Whittier, and other poets may be given 
a special entertainment. A special period of history or a 
country, like Holland or Japan, may furnish the nucleus. 

In connection with such exercises there should be speak- 
ing by children singly or in groups. All should appear in 
something outside an exercise shared by the school, though 
what each child shall do the teacher and circumstances 
must decide, since some can do one thing better and 
others another. The point must be to have an arrange- 
ment in which no one can justly feel slighted. Certain 
children may assist in decorating, others may make a wel- 
coming committee, others may pass programs or do some- 
thing to bring themselves into prominence, and the least 
forward child should come into the limelight as much as 
possible. Tact and a kind heart will help the teacher here. 

Preparation of material. Long experience has taught 
that a child who has once learned to speak a piece in a 
certain way may thereafter be trusted to say it in that way 
when the occasion arrives, no matter how many times he 
has been corrected in some part and has said the selection 

[261] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

in the new way. So it is evident that the only wise plan 
is to teach him rightly at first. Before giving him the 
selection to work upon by himself, he should be made to 
read it to the teacher till he easily and naturally reads it 
with the proper inflections. This may be brought about 
by the same means that are employed in the reading les- 
son or it may be secured by imitation, but the first ren- 
derings, before the learning begins, should be correct ; then 
the child may usually be relied upon to say it properly. 

Dressing up. The children should by all means be 
encouraged to dress up the schoolroom appropriately and 
also to array themselves to fit their parts. The desire to 
masquerade — to make believe — is very strong in most chil- 
dren, and the realistic effect produced fixes the impression 
strongly. Training for the imagination is furnished also, 
and the idea has much to commend it. Teachers should 
be careful, however, not to make too great demands upon 
the time of parents, and as far as possible the pupils and 
teacher should make their own preparations. Children 
will often develop great power in preparing costumes and 
in training other children for parts. I have in mind an 
apparently rather stupid girl in a fourth grade who organ- 
ized and wholly managed several public outside enter- 
tainments based upon the exercises that had been held 
in her school. 

Admission entertainments. Usually it is better for school 
entertainments to be free. Occasionally a slight admission 
fee may be charged, and the proceeds devoted to school 
improvements. It is a good plan in such cases for the 
children to do as much of the business part as possible, 
in the way of making arrangements, printing and selling 

[262] 



SPECIAL EXERCISES 

tickets, making programs, and the like. It is often well 
to have an exhibition of handwork in this connection, with 
perhaps a sale. 

Value of entertainments. Public exercises are of great 
value in creating interest, enthusiasm, and pride in their 
school on the part of the children. They also arouse 
these sentiments in the parents and friends, and form 
one of the strongest links between teacher and com- 
munity. They are worth much, but they should not be 
secured at too great a sacrifice of regular school work, 

REFERENCES 

Comstock. A Dickens Dramatic Reader. Ginn and Company. 

Cyr. Dramatic First Reader. Ginn and Company. 

Finlay-Johnson. The Dramatic Method of Teaching. Ginn and 
Company. 

George. The Song of Hiawatha. A. Flanagan Company. 

Holbrook. Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades. American Book 
Company. 

Johnston and Barnum. Book of Plays for Little Actors. Amer- 
ican Book Company. 

Knight. Dramatic Reader for Grammar Grades. American Book 
Company. 

Noyes and Ray. Little Plays for Little People. Ginn and Company. 

Stevenson. Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. Houghton Mif- 
flin Company. 

Various educational magazines. 



[263] 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE RECITATION 

Preparation. The preparation for a lesson should be 
made by both teacher and pupil. If either is to omit it, it 
may better be the pupil than the teacher. Indeed, in cer- 
tain ways of taking a subject, the teacher is the only one 
who needs formal preparatory work. Preparation by the 
teacher involves gathering up what she already knows of 
a subject, reading from the child's textbook and from 
other books, direct observation of the things which form 
the subject of the lesson when such observation is possi- 
ble, thinking out illustrations, — pictures, objects, verbal 
illustrations, — and getting into line all the material ac- 
quired, so that the work may go on logically and vividly. 
This last includes deciding on manner of presentation and 
arranging material according to the plan selected. 

Ways of conducting recitation. There are many ways 
of taking up a recitation. The child may study his text- 
book and give it back to the teacher word for word, in 
response to questions or topics. It need not be said that 
this is a poor way. Or he may study his lesson and give 
it back in his own words, in response to the same stimuli. 
This is better, but not the best way. The recitation should 
be a thinking period, containing much discussion, much 
free interchange of opinions and questions between teacher 
and pupils. The recitation time should serve as a stimulus 

[264] 



THE RECITATION 

to both. An occasional lesson may be confined to testing 
the pupil's faithfulness of study and his knowledge, but 
most recitations should do more. They should at least add 
much to the child's knowledge. The teacher should tell 
him many things directly; she should tell him more, in- 
directly — by showing him that he may find out what he 
wants to know either from books or direct observation. 
She may also lead him to new knowledge by calling into 
his mind the information he has on the subject under dis- 
cussion, and then leading him by questions to see new 
relations, new results, and so arrive at new facts. By means 
of such recitations the child grows broader in knowledge 
and gets increased power and skill in obtaining knowledge 
for himself. This last is one of the great aims in education. 
Questions and topics needed. For a long time school 
recitation was carried on by the question and answer 
method. In a reaction from the great amount of set work 
that resulted, large use was made of topics. The best 
recitation work combines both. The topical method, in 
theory, gives the child a topic and lets him talk about it 
freely and in his own words. Abuse of the topical method 
lets a pupil tell regarding a topic the ideas of some one 
else in the words of some one else. The child is purely 
passive and need do little thinking or secure little gain in 
power to express himself. This is not a necessity, but it is 
of frequent occurrence. The pupil being able to recite 
without words from the teacher, it follows that a lazy or 
ineffective teacher soon becomes a mere figurehead. She 
presents the subject for talk either verbally or through the 
written topic and, except for that, virtually drops out of the 
lesson in which she ought to be the most important factor. 

[265] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

By that it is not meant that she ought to do all the work, 
but she should be the master spirit that produces thought 
as well as effort on the part of the child. Topics should 
never serve for more than to start the parts of a lesson. 
Questions and answers and free discussion should continue 
it. The pupil should state his own knowledge or opinions 
in his own words. He has often to gather his opinions 
from the book, but they should become vividly his before 
the lesson is through. To recite a lesson through by either 
questions or topics and then, if time serves, to recite it 
again is more than absurd. 

Oral teaching, or development. Oral teaching, or devel- 
opment work, should be a prominent feature in many 
recitations. It is particularly suited to young children for 
a great deal of their work, but it is also extremely helpful 
with older classes, and no kind of class work is so produc- 
tive of the habits of inquisitiveness and of thought, to say 
nothing of the habit of free expression. We may well have 
this kind of work largely increased in most of our schools 
of more advanced grades. 

All children, even the dullest, acquire a considerable 
fund of knowledge. In development work, this knowledge 
is turned about and seen in new relations, and out of this 
process new knowledge springs through the child's own 
thought wisely guided by the teacher. This kind of teach- 
ing is very useful in connection with geography and science 
work, but it need not stop there ; it will help greatly to have 
more of it in connection with arithmetic, grammar, his- 
tory, in fact nearly all subjects. Power to deduce the new 
from the old is of great service in life ; also power to turn 
one's knowledge upon situations as they come up and get at 

[266] 



THE RECITATION 

the connected truths. In many of our schools we do not 
have enough recitation work that is not preceded by direct 
book study of the subject to be handled. 

It is often helpful to read over and discuss with a class 
the advance lesson in a subject — a process productive of 
thought, though of a different kind from that employed in 
developing a lesson. 

It is often wise to have the lesson dug out by the chil- 
dren without the aid of class discussion first, but too close 
following of this plan has made children prone to accept 
stated facts without thought and to feel that books are the 
only seat of information. 

Developing the lesson is a great help in fixing values ; 
finding out what parts are essential, what parts illustrative, 
what parts minor, what parts ornamental — put in for attrac- 
tion. Something of this sort may come also in connection 
with discussing the lesson, but many a child has no idea 
that in study one needs to find out the gist of the matter 
and proceed from it to the full development of the subject, 
— that is, get the skeleton and then find proper covering 
for it, — a process that is usually followed in a well-given 
development lesson ; so such a lesson trains the children 
gradually to ability in that direction. It is necessary in all 
this work to distinguish carefully between reasoning and 
guessing and to train the child toward the former. 

There should be study following the development reci- 
tation, for the purpose of fixing the facts taken and for 
getting additional information. It is not to be supposed 
that a child's work in school is to cease to be work because 
he learns things and how to learn more things easily in 
his classes. 

[267] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Assignment. Part of each recitation must be given to 
assigning work for study. This may occupy a minute or 
two, or in some cases a rather large part of the recitation 
may be taken for it. In either case the assignment should 
be clear enough and full enough so that no mistakes can 
occur. Every pupil should know just what is expected and 
have an idea of how to go to work. There should be no 
excuse for argument later as to where the lesson was to 
begin or leave off or how it was to be done in general. 
A teacher's indefinite assignment is often responsible for 
a child's indefinite achievement. This may hold true 
equally when the assignment is from one topic or page 
to another or when, the whole lesson being development, 
the assignment in a way occupies all the recitation period. 
It is the work of this part of the recitation period to cause 
the pupil to find out what he is to learn and how he is to 
go about it ; in other words, to bring him face to face 
with his problem for the next lesson, without which help 
he will often waste much time. 

Questioning. Skill in questioning is greatly needed in 
development work and in class work of any kind. If a 
teacher has little power to question, she should observe 
good teaching and profit by it, and she should practice by 
thinking out carefully what seems a good way of taking up 
a lesson. She may select a geography lesson, for example, 
and make a careful plan with thoughtful questions. She 
may think what she will ask, what different answers this 
question may bring, what she will ask if she gets this 
answer, what if she gets that, what if still another. In 
this way she may train herself to a habit of questioning 
well on the spur of the moment. 

[268] 



THE RECITATION 

Questions should be clear, simply worded, and definite. 
Cloudy, indefinite questions bring hazy answers, given at 
a venture, or answers far away from what the teacher has 
in mind. Questions should be given in logical order, that 
the child may follow the train of thought smoothly and 
easily and see all along what the teacher is aiming at. 

The teacher should be careful not to ask leading ques- 
tions, those in which the idea of the answer is conveyed 
ever so slightly. If a pupil does not know, it is right that 
he should realize it ; and if a teacher is to do all the work, 
it should be done openly and not under pretense that the 
child is a factor. Questions that may be answered by 
Yes or No, or other alternate questions, are better avoided. 
They may be used occasionally, but the habit of asking 
them is easily formed, and they do not furnish the best 
form of questioning. 

Too simple and unnecessary questions should be omitted. 
Teachers generally talk too much, and the time taken by 
such questions may be used to advantage for other things. 
Questions should probe. The answers should show what 
knowledge the child really has. Thought, active thought, 
should be required from the pupils. 

Roundabout questions should be avoided and those that 
use unnecessary words. In general, it is better to use 
" what," " where," " when," and " how " to start questions 
rather than to end them. Such beginnings as "and," 
"now," "well," "who can tell," "what can you say," 
"what about," are not good. Such are used so often by 
many teachers as to become absolute mannerisms, and 
children are quick to notice, to imitate, or to laugh at 
anything in the teacher which resembles mannerism. 

[269] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Questions should be given distinctly and not repeated. 
They should be given before the name of the pupil who 
is to answer, but the name should follow instantly, with 
but few exceptions. They are less wearying if given with 
a falling inflection. The names are better called in this 
way also. 

Distribution. Questions should be well distributed. 
They should not all go to the good scholars because they 
can answer better, nor to the poor ones because they need 
them more. All should have a chance, all should have 
their time. Some will do more in their time than others, 
as is the way of the world. The best will be able to do 
harder things than the poorer scholars, but it is not possi- 
ble that all should come out at the end of the year knowing 
the same amount. That would truly be a "lock step" of 
the graded-school system that might well be complained of. 
The lower attainment of the slower child may be as great 
for him as the almost perfect work of the more gifted. 
The work of any class should be of so broad a range as 
to allow for the uneven equipment of the members. 

The teacher's questions should not be aimed at half 
the class or at a little group or at individuals. All should 
feel themselves included in whatever is going on. Ques- 
tions should not go around the class except in a very few 
cases of drill work — in which much time may be saved and 
the turns swing along so fast that all have to be alert any- 
way. Even then the teacher needs to be magnetic and 
watchful. It is not well to question alphabetically or in 
any set order. Name cards, too, are dangerous, as one con- 
tinually gets the square peg in the round hole — the weakest 
child with all the hardest questions, and the brightest dull 

[270] 



THE RECITATION 

because of insufficient exercise for his powers. Nor should 
the questions be given for all to answer, as concert work 
is seldom valuable. 

Volunteer answers need to be carefully looked out for. 
Many children who do not raise hands can answer ques- 
tions. The teacher gets into the way of working with the 
active children. Time is lost in waiting for the hands, and 
— as was said above — prompt questions, without waits for 
hands or before calling names, save much time. There is 
no time to spare for waiting for these things, nor before 
the next question. The questions should be ready, as they 
usually will be if the teacher knows her subject and has 
trained herself to think logically from point to point. 

Attention a characteristic of a good recitation. A good 
recitation must command the eager, interested attention of 
the class. This can never be gained without what we call 
animation. No shadowy, colorless lesson ever aroused in 
the pupils the attention that might otherwise have been 
there. Animation does not mean noise. One does not 
have to talk every minute, nor in a loud voice. Distinct- 
ness and life may be present, though the voice is low. A 
high-pitched voice defeats its own ends by producing a 
nervous distraction akin to pain. A mumble, however, 
seldom goes with animation. Jerky, noisy movements ; 
walking up and down ; wringing hands ; gesticulating — 
all such nervous ways are no help in producing the effect 
that animation and life of the right kind bring. 

The lesson needs to be introduced in a way striking 
enough to at once attract the attention of the children, 
and attention once gained should be held. Many teachers 
work along on so dead a level that one may stay many 

[271] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

minutes in the room and have only a general idea of what 
the teacher is working for. Children come to the recitation 
with minds filled with thoughts of which the teacher has little 
idea. The lesson should start in such a way as may serve 
for a preparation for the work to come. Aimless thoughts — > 
those called up by what the child was just working upon, 
and any other inadvertent ones — should be driven out and 
the ideas needed for the comprehension of what is to form 
the subject of the lesson brought into prominence by a 
few short preparatory questions. Then the lesson will 
swing along smoothly. 

Variety a help. For the holding of attention, variety is 
needed — new ways of taking up a subject, little surprises 
of manner or thought. Much drill work has to be done 
in any class. In this there is often not enough that is new 
to hold the attention, and reviews without attention do not 
establish facts in memory. Here comes in the value of 
devices which shall produce interested attention and so 
serve to fix the required thing. Experiments and illustra- 
tions, besides helping in many other ways, justify them- 
selves by their effect upon attention. 

Other reasons for loss of attention. Since, whenever the 
teacher loses the attention of her class for any reason, she 
has to gain it all over, she should beware of losing it. At- 
tention lessens if a child cannot see or cannot hear or is 
physically annoyed in any way. It vanishes when one goes 
for any length of time without having anything to do ; as 
when one child works for a large part of a recitation 
period over a difficult problem or sentence and all the rest 
of the class sit and presumably attend. One can see the 
interest and attention waver, see pupil after pupil relax. 

[272] 



THE RECITATION 

Rarely can effort pull them up again. A little to do often, 
rather than a lot occasionally, is the better way. It is not 
necessary that a child do all of an exercise himself because 
it troubles him. He can do a part and hear other pupils 
finish. Individual work at map or board, prolonged to any 
length, sets all the class free to gather wool with wander- 
ing wits. 

If a teacher takes time during a class to help studying 
children, she may be sure of loss of attention ; though of 
course she should see that the pupils not reciting are 
controlled and busy during class time. 

Sympathy between teacher and class is a great help in 
holding attention. They simply walk the path together with 
pleasure, the teacher's interest stimulating the child's. 

Responsibility of class. A class should be made to feel 
a [responsibility for attention. The stimulus should not 
have to come wholly from the teacher. " It is your busi- 
ness to make me learn it and like it " should not be the 
governing feeling. A class should feel that it is only polite 
to look attentive ; to listen, think, exert itself. Praise is 
often effective in securing the right attitude, though some 
children, if much praised, think that they have achieved 
and cease effort. Usually it is a good means to employ. 
The child should feel that <l I don't know " is not a de- 
sirable answer. He should not be ashamed not to know, 
but he should have made an effort to overcome the condi- 
tion. Usually he can be made to answer the question by 
means of further questions, but he should have a per- 
sonal responsibility for knowing. " I don't know," when 
it implies "I don't care," should be done away with by 
some means. 

[273] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Attitude of class. Though military precision is passing, 
yet it can do no harm to insist that during a recitation 
period pupils should sit in a good position. During much 
of the studying time they lean above the desk, so the 
class time may restfully maintain a more erect attitude, 
though it is not necessary for a class to appear as if 
iron rods supported the backs of the children. Sprawly, 
slouchy positions are physically harmful, and the atti- 
tude of mind produced is not a helpful one. In reciting, 
pupils should stand erect, free from chair and desk, with 
hands in an easy position. They should stand still. They 
should hold their heads up and speak distinctly, answer- 
ing with decision as though they were sure of things. 
Answers made with a rising inflection produce an uncer- 
tain way of thinking after a time. The answer should 
be made in such a way that it will be unnecessary to 
repeat it. Incidentally it may be said that it is not often 
a good plan for the teacher to make any response to a 
child's answer. A large number of teachers repeat all or 
a part of the answer, or say "yes" or "that will do" or 
"that is sufficient" or "good," or use some other form 
of response. 

Characteristics of a teacher, helping to a good recitation. 
To make a recitation what it should be, a teacher needs 
to be resourceful ; if one way won't bring it, another must. 
She has to be level-headed, able to guide the child away 
from the trivial to the important without suppressing his 
desire to work and his self-confidence. She needs intu- 
ition — power to see where his troubles lie, what his line of 
thought is — that she may know how to help him. She 
needs confidence — no fear but that she will accomplish 

[ 2 74] 



THE RECITATION 

her aim if she makes effort enough. She must be fully 
impressed with the idea that pouring in and drawing out 
are not true education. She must be willing to work. No 
teacher who does not know her subject matter has a right 
to demand that the child have a knowledge of his lesson. 
She who cannot hear the recitation without great use of 
the textbook should allow the pupil to have his open also. 
Willingness to work does not apply to study alone ; recita- 
tions often demand what seems like manual labor. Above 
all, the teacher needs conscience combined with common 
sense. She must know when to drill, when to let it alone ; 
when to push a child hard, when to desist. In general, 
teachers do not drill upon what they are teaching till they 
have driven things home, but a few overdo it. The recita- 
tion is the important work of the school day, the teacher is 
the most important factor in the recitation ; it will stand 
or fall through her. 

Summary. In ordinary recitation work the pupils are 
dealt with in a mass, and interest and enthusiasm come 
with the contact of the varying minds. This causes it to 
be a more efficient factor in education than is the study 
period. Some recitation periods may well be taken to help 
the class members individually, but this is work of a dif- 
ferent kind and may be classed under the head of study. 
It need not be considered here. The recitation, as we 
have been treating it, should test the child's knowledge 
of the subject ; it should teach him new matter, directly 
in the class or through opening avenues for him to follow. 
It should arouse his interest, show him how to work, in- 
crease his power and skill in working lines. He should 
come from it feeling that learning counts, that all he can 

[ 2 75] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

contribute to class work is appreciated, that all around him 
lie means of education, and that his may be the joy of 
using these means. 

REFERENCES 

Betts. The Recitation. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Charters. Methods of Teaching. Row, Peterson and Company. 

Hughes. Mistakes in Teaching. A. Flanagan Company. 

McMurry. How to Study. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

McMurry. Method of the Recitation. The Macmillan Company. 

Prince. Courses of Studies and Methods of Teaching. Ginn and 
Company. 

Thompson. Minimum Essentials. Ginn and Company. 

Tompkins. Philosophy of School Management. Ginn and Com- 
pany. 



[2 7 6] 



CHAPTER XXVII 

PLAY 

Play in school is allowable at proper times and places. 
These times and places are in recreation hour and when- 
ever it will make school work easier and more effective. 

Teacher should superintend play. The children's plays 
should be superintended by the teacher, though not usu- 
ally controlled by her. The superintendence is necessary 
because without it the plays often become rough, boister- 
ous, and dangerous. Certain children are abused on the 
playground, either by neglect or by being made a butt 
for ridicule. Improper conversation often occurs, as well 
as improper behavior. Quarrels are of frequent happen- 
ing, and the rights of the neighbors are not respected. 
The teacher can look out for all these things, teach the 
children courteous conduct, build up character generally, 
teach many facts for right living, get closer to the hearts 
and lives of the children, and learn many ways of ap- 
proach, through the recreation. From little ideas gleaned 
on the playground she may often modify her plans of 
instruction in almost any line. 

Teacher should not control play. It is well for the 
teacher to show new games to the children, but it is a mis- 
take to force her kind of playing upon them when they 
wish to work out plays for themselves, since from such 
thinking-out of games they get a great deal of development 

[277] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

in various ways. She may often make a suggestion that 
will cause them to think in certain lines. She may play 
with them'if they want her to, but she must be careful 
that the free association of the grounds in no way falls 
short of dignity on her part. There are ways and ways of 
playing with children, and the teacher should choose the 
right way. She should also never play so hard with one 
set of children as to become unconscious of what the 
rest are doing. 

Kinds of games. Many different kinds of games are 
needed and will spring up. Some children like to play 
in the sand, and little hints thrown out by the teacher will 
cause this play to reproduce many of the schoolroom sug- 
gestions. It has already been said that children should 
ever be encouraged to reproduce in their out-of-school play, 
both in the school yard and at home, the scenes and events 
they are studying about. This constructive play is helpful 
in development as well as in producing interest. 

Plays will arise that call for jumping, running, pulling. 
Wrestling will abound. All these have a part to perform 
in developing certain muscles, and they will come along 
about when they are needed for that development. Some 
of them should be discouraged ; as too much tree climbing, 
or games like snap-the-whip or leapfrog when some of 
the boys in the game are much stronger than the others, 
though leapfrog with care may go on all right. Too vio- 
lent strain on the back should be guarded against, so 
supervision is needed. Only soft balls should be allowed 
on the grounds — or bean bags, or a basket ball. Real base- 
ball should be played only in a part of the yard that can 
be given up to it. 

[278] 



PLAY 

Johnson's "Education by Plays and Games" and Ban- 
croft's book, "Games for Playground, Home, School, and 
Gymnasium," are excellent for teachers, as they suggest 
countless games and increase the teacher's knowledge of 
reasons for playing. 

Indoor recess. An out-of-door recess is the best kind, 
but often recess has to be held indoors. If there is an 
unused room, it should be given to the children for a 
recreation room and they should be allowed to play 
freely and noisily, though not with boisterous roughness. 
Marching or ring games are good — or tag, or aimless 
running. Bean-bag games and ball playing of the safe 
kind may occur. 

If recess must be in the schoolroom, games should be 
instituted that, while reasonably quiet, call for vigorous 
movement. Games like those of a children's party should 
be used. Leaping over desks, wrestling, throwing things 
at random, anything that may prove destructive to furni- 
ture or the children's respect for the place, should not 
be allowed. 

Children should take part in recreation. The recreation 
time should be given up to recreation. Children should 
not be allowed to work at tasks during the playtime, nor 
should the teacher work. This is a social time and should 
be kept so. Neither should the pupils be allowed to sit 
quietly at the desks. There should be movement. 

Noon rest time. In the longer rest time which occurs 
at noon — if pupils come from a distance and bring din- 
ners or if they habitually come early — a certain amount of 
industrial work or reading may be done ; or the children 
may play with dolls, or play store as suggested under the 

[279] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

arithmetic work ; or in warmer weather much may be done 
in gardening and nature study. The pupils should not 
be encouraged to bring dinners if their homes are near 
enough so that they can reasonably go and come in the 
given time. If the pupils stay to dinner, the teacher should 
stay too or see that the children are chaperoned in some 
way. The iniquity that has existed in some rural schools, 
partly because of the entire freedom from oversight during 
the noon hour, is appalling. If both teacher and children 
bring dinners, many suggestions for table manners may 
be given under the head of play, by having breakfast, 
dinner, or tea parties. Incidentally there may be some 
teaching about proper things to eat, but this calls for great 
tact in the handling. 

Play in connection with regular school work. Much 
of the regular school work may be eased and illuminated 
by seizing upon the play element which may be found in 
it. Nearly all the work of the little children abounds in 
opportunities for it, and much of that with older pupils. 
Suggestions have been given, under the proper headings, 
for games to be used in connection with many school sub- 
jects. With the little ones it is frequently active play, with 
the older the race or contest element is more prominent. 
Choosing sides, keeping personal tally, trying individually 
to get things done first, many ideas like these, a skillful 
teacher will use a great deal, and her skill will appear in 
thinking out the contests and preventing friction and ac- 
cusations of unfairness in the execution. " Make believe," 
"let us pretend," will help too in conquering school work. 
Discipline is softened and made easy by introduction of 
a joke, a pretense, a contest, or a game of any sort. 

[280] 



PLAY 

A school life in which play is given its proper value will 
be a school life fruitful in results and one to be looked 
back upon with pleasure. 

REFERENCES 

Bancroft. Games for Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium. 

The Macmillan Company. 
Curtis. Play and Recreation for the Open Country. Ginn and 

Company. 
Johnson. Education by Plays and Games. Ginn and Company. 
Johnson. What to do at Recess. Ginn and Company. 



[281] 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

DISCIPLINE 

Reasons for need of discipline. The young teacher's 
greatest stumbling block, the older teacher's greatest trial, 
is often the disciplining and controlling of the school. A 
school needs discipline for many reasons ; first, because 
without it no school can do good work and economize 
time and effort. It is the wheel grease which makes prog- 
ress easy. Children, left to themselves in work, are rest- 
less, noisy, rude, ineffective in many ways. They waste 
their own time and that of others. They know this as well 
as anyone, and an undisciplined school scorns the teacher 
who permits misbehavior and knows it is having a good 
time at the expense of valuable things. Yet such is the 
lack of self-control that children seldom fail to take 
advantage of opportunities offered. 

So a second reason for discipline appears. It is needed 
that the pupil may be taught the value and power of self- 
control — just the old question of development, of education. 
A child needs to learn regard for the rights of others, re- 
spect for law and a natural obedience to it — self-restraint. 
He needs to develop high ideals, with correct habits of be- 
havior. In short, he needs to grow toward beauty of char- 
acter. School discipline should aim for all these things, 
not merely to procure momentary obedience, which, though 
valuable, is minor in comparison with the other results. 

[282] 



DISCIPLINE 

Reasons why discipline is difficult. Discipline is made 
difficult by many causes. First, there is always a strong 
personal element in it. The way the teacher feels, the way 
the child feels, both generally and in the particular instance, 
must always determine the direction and the effect of the 
discipline. 

Second, with the young teacher a misunderstanding 
of what constitutes good discipline often enters in. The 
following questions occur to her : How much is necessary 
noise and movement. How much self-control should be 
expected from the child ? What is really the difference 
between that which many good teachers allow under the 
head of freedom, and that which others condemn as pure, 
unbridled license on the part of the school ? What should 
be suppressed and what allowed ? Is the school running 
away or merely moving with a free, allowable stride ? 

Third, many troubles in discipline come from a lack of 
tact — from failure to comprehend the child's motives and 
to see at once how to get to work with him, and from the 
doing of the wrong thing, which antagonizes him. 

Fourth, many more troubles come from failure to or- 
ganize the work in such a way that the pupils must keep 
busy constantly and without friction. 

Fifth, often a teacher fails to discipline because she is 
afraid of incurring the dislike of the children or of their 
parents, or from a grounded opinion that she must govern 
by love and respect or other motives that fail to appeal to 
the children she has in hand. 

Lastly — often, indeed — the teacher does not control the 
pupils because she has no idea of what to do in the given 
case. She sees the trouble but knows not how to remedy it. 

[283] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

So, from one cause and another, we have a large num- 
ber of undisciplined or somewhat badly disciplined schools, 
a large number of teachers who are mildly tortured by the 
controlling of their schools, and a large number of children 
who are not being rightly handled. Each of the above 
causes for poorly controlled schools will be considered in 
this discussion. 

What constitutes good order. Perhaps the first thing 
for a teacher to do is to find out what constitutes disorder. 
A school may be said to be out of order when the condi- 
tions in it are such that the children are disturbing each 
other, preventing the best work being done in the easiest 
and most effective way. A school is out of the teacher's 
control when she feels that she cannot at will produce the 
conditions that she desires. It does not at all follow that 
it must remain that way. 

Noise a condition of disorder. Many things may disturb 
so that children cannot work. Noise is one, so a noisy 
school is not commendable. If pupils are able to work in 
it, it still remains true that they are subjected to a nerve 
strain such as comes from working in the midst of noise 
anywhere. Some children simply cannot work in a hubbub. 
A quiet school does not mean a dead school, not one where 
cast-iron order or absolute lack of movement prevails. A 
proper working noise should be allowed ; the hum of labor 
is not objectionable, but one would gladly lessen the sound 
of labor's hum in a cotton mill or a boiler shop if it were 
possible, and the schoolroom differs from many workshops 
in that its labor is largely mental and so more greatly in 
need of quiet. A school should be as still as is compatible 
with good earnest work and the comfort of the pupils. 

[284] 



DISCIPLINE 

Training in being quiet is not necessarily an injury. To 
always move the lips when one reads is rather a hindrance 
sometimes ; to whisper or talk aloud when the spirit moves 
is often a social rudeness. There is no need that boys 
should always step as heavily as they can, nor be moving 
all the time, nor go with an uproar when they do move. 
To be able to wait a suitable time for getting things is 
often an advantage. 

Movement favorable to disorder. Children's work is 
disturbed by anything that distracts the attention. Moving 
things always demand attention, so, in a schoolroom, un- 
necessary movement should be avoided. Any necessary 
moving is of course legitimate, but the law of attention and 
movement being absolute, it follows that the movements 
should be not only quiet and reasonably infrequent but 
performed in the most natural way. The pupil expects the 
teacher to be moving, so it is often better that she be the 
one to move. Instead of having every child in a class 
tumble out of his seat at a certain stage in the work and 
shuffle down the aisle to get a piece of paper, it were 
better that paper enough be given out at first or that the 
teacher keep an eye for needs and remedy the difficulty. 
This does not at all mean that pupils may not leave their 
places ever or get things for themselves. It does mean 
that usually the teacher should know the occasion of the 
moving and reduce it to a minimum of disturbance. Going 
for all one needs with no demand for foresight— traveling 
to the wastebasket, the water-pail or faucet, the supply case 
— soon produces a tendency to spend one's time upon the 
road rather than in work. It is wasteful as well as disturb- 
ing, and it opens avenues for trouble in many ways. 

[285] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Usually it is better to have no communication or leav- 
ing of desks except for well-understood reasons and then 
nearly always after receiving permission through some sig- 
nal. Some experienced teachers allow pupils to move 
around without permission, but the young teacher is safer 
if she knows just why they are going. Even with the older 
it often results in much aimless wandering, waste of time, 
and confusion. Many things that may be permitted in a 
small school or by an experienced teacher are unsafe to be 
attempted with larger schools or by one who has taught 
little. It is better to be rather exacting till one's judgment 
and power are trained, then one may be more liberal. 

Industry, obedience, politeness, signs of well-ordered 
school. A well-ordered school is not only moderately 
quiet and reasonably stationary, but it is busy. It works 
willingly and almost constantly. It shows a desire to 
achieve. If a school is well controlled, its members are 
polite, obedient, cheerful. No teacher may feel that her 
school is under perfect control when the children are 
outwardly rude in look or action, or disobedient either 
directly or by a return to the forbidden as soon as her 
glance is removed. Disputes as to what he was told to do, 
how far the lesson was assigned, what was taken yesterday, 
and things of that sort, bear the stamp of rudeness most 
decidedly — to say nothing of the suggestion of indefinite- 
ness in the teacher's procedures. 

Understanding by teacher of what constitutes disorder 
absolutely necessary for good discipline. Having decided 
what good order is — and that must be done finally, not by 
what has been said here but by thought, observation, and 
common sense — the next thing is to think how to meet 

[286] 



DISCIPLINE 

the difficulties ; but I would emphasize here that to know 
what constitutes a well-ordered school is a prime requisite 
for a teacher. Many times I have been assured by students 
who have had some experience that they had no trouble 
in discipline, when their superintendents have reported 
them as exceedingly weak. They evidently had not the 
right idea of what to demand, being satisfied with condi- 
tions far short of the best. A superintendent, who had 
been driven nearly to distraction during a visit to one of 
his schools, asked the teacher if it did not make her 
nervous to have the children so restless. She replied that 
she did not notice it in the slightest degree. Her ideals 
were not high, and he was neglecting his duties in the 
direction of raising them, for he made no further comment. 
Proper organization of work a help in discipline. If 
school work is properly and carefully arranged, it greatly 
simplifies the problem of discipline. Such organization 
calls for thought, common sense, executive ability, and 
hard work. A teacher should give the pupils all the work 
they can do, see that they do it, and endeavor to arouse 
a wish to do it. Keeping busy is one of the great secrets 
of a good school. A teacher can arrange for the distribu- 
tion and collection of material, see that the books and 
other things in the desks are kept in order — in many such 
ways simplify the work and economize on time and con- 
fusion. Such simple things as planning which side of a 
seat a child shall get out of, whether a class shall pass 
forward or toward the back of the room, or whether it 
shall pass at all, have a great effect on the general appear- 
ance of a class and its tendency to good behavior. If some 
of the children hold objects to be collected on the right 

[287] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

side of the desk while others hold them on the left, if some 
fail to hold them at all, if certain books are left behind 
upon the shelf, — being out of proper place ; — confusion is 
caused and a general loss of respect for law and order. 

If things to be used in the work are made ready before- 
hand, it contributes much toward easy management. If a 
teacher has her plans for the day carefully thought out, 
much is gained in general lack of friction and of need to 
find things to fill in gaps. All of these arrangements de- 
crease the restlessness and the idle times which serve for 
mischief and for producing the general loss of a feeling 
of responsibility. 

The personal element a large factor. Since the way the 
teacher feels must determine her attitude toward things, 
it becomes her duty to keep herself in a state of mind 
and body which will render her normal toward disturb- 
ing elements. If a teacher was up too late the night 
before, for the purpose either of correcting papers or of 
attending a whist party, she cannot look at things rea- 
sonably. If she suffers from indigestion, nerve strain, 
headache, she cannot meet difficulties cheerfully and so 
deprive them of half their terrors. I have known a pair 
of new shoes to render a person an unfit judge of those 
around her, and there are people who can see nothing in 
the world worth trying for if they happen to be not quite 
warm enough to be comfortable. Little things these are, 
but many a teacher has had a hard day just because of 
some small physical discomfort that started her off wrongly 
in the morning. It is almost sure to be the case that when 
everything goes wrong through the day the fault is the 
teacher's. It is perfectly possible, usually, for anyone to 

[288] 



DISCIPLINE 

regard her physical condition and temper it to her needs. 
Incidentally it may be stated that when the teacher knows 
that the children have been overstrained or are overexcited 
in any way she should be specially careful to keep well 
herself. 

Then, many teachers will freely permit liberties to some 
children, while unable to endure the slightest infringement 
from others. We are so constituted that some people seem 
to get on our nerves, while others never rub us the wrong 
way. Because of this, we are often unfair and hasty in 
our judgments — overlooking when we should take note 
of offenses and nagging, frowning, reproving, when we 
should be silent or smile or stimulate This state of affairs 
is pretty common with the best of us, though it may not 
frequently be carried to an extent where great harm is 
done. 

Tact an essential element. Tactless teachers often pre- 
cipitate troubles. It is safe not to be in too great a hurry. 
Difficulties do not always have to be settled on the instant, 
and waiting often changes the tension of the whole situa- 
tion. This does not mean that real demands for prompt 
action should not be promptly met. They should, but de- 
liberate action is often better. Remoteness of punishment 
may sometimes diminish its efficacy, but the wise teacher 
will be sure the child makes proper connections between 
the punishment and the offense — the school also, if it is 
needed by the school. Troubles should be avoided when 
possible. Many a teacher has difficulties because her school 
has been running so smoothly that she takes a sudden 
notion that she must have been lax. Many another reads 
trouble into harmless acts. Others quite unintentionally 

[289] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

goad on to destruction a child who was headed wrongly 
in the morning and who needed a little ignoring or a little 
smoothing down. 

Tact means sympathy and observation. Some people 
possess it, some wholly lack it, most are able to acquire 
it to a degree. A teacher's whole personality may suggest 
it. Each child may be made to feel that he is to get his 
due of kind treatment. The best way to get tact, perhaps, 
is to study the children, observe what things seem to ap- 
peal to them, to what motives they most easily yield, what 
the home conditions may tend to produce. Everything a 
teacher can find out about a pupil will help in knowing 
how to handle him. Study of children does away with the 
idea that they should be treated alike. They are not alike, 
they should be treated accordingly. They should be made 
to understand that they will be used fairly, but that they will 
not all get the same thing always. It is possible to make 
children comprehend this idea. If it be well " rubbed in " 
and they be made to know that because they do not see 
penalties and rewards administered it is not to be con- 
cluded that they are not given, much of the feeling of un- 
fairness that exists and has its effect upon a school may 
be done away with. Learning to know the pupils, keeping 
the golden rule, and maintaining her own dignity and self- 
respect — all will help a teacher to tactfulness and power 
in discipline. 

Popularity. Keeping these things in mind, a teacher 
should go ahead and do what seems to her to be right and 
necessary, regardless of whether she is popular with chil- 
dren or parents. She must do her best without fear ; yet 
if a teacher feels her whole school against her, she should 

[290] 



DISCIPLINE 

hesitate to advance till she has again examined her ground 
and made sure she is right and has gone about matters 
tactfully. If she does her very best and thinks no more 
about it, the popularity will probably come. 

Love and respect. Many a young teacher has gone mar- 
tyrlike to her doom because she had certain theories about 
teaching and felt she must live up to them. One of the 
greatest of these has been the feeling that she must govern 
by love and respect only. There is no possible reason why 
these feelings should not form a chief factor in the problem 
of discipline, but frequently the child has no immediate rea- 
son to love a teacher, and the only reason for his deeming 
her worthy of respect is that she is placed in a position of 
authority over him. During the first few weeks, or some- 
times after a waiting lull, or during the first hours of the 
day if she is a substitute, the pupil ascertains by personal 
experiment how deserving she is of either. Holding her 
ground during this time by whatever means she finds most 
effective, she may firmly establish both love and respect 
and thereafter govern by means of them. The many little 
things she allows or prevents will do more to decide the 
question than will a few big ones. Theories are all right, 
but they should be laid aside when necessary, at the call 
of common sense, and modified when occasion demands. 

Not knowing what to do. The teacher who sees the 
mischief but does not know what to do, should remember 
that it is not the thing that constitutes the penalty but the 
certainty of there being a penalty that makes for good be- 
havior. It often makes little difference what the teacher 
does, so long as she does something. One failure to recog- 
nize disobedience and deal with it will bring future trouble. 

[291] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Discipline should be quiet. Discipline should be as 
quiet as may be. Offenses should not be overlooked, but 
they should be prevented when possible. It is often easy 
to see that something is afoot that will make trouble in a 
minute or two. A word, a look, or some quiet means may 
nip the trouble in the bud. Means and occasions for 
offenses should be removed whenever possible. When 
offenses occur they should be dealt with without uproar. 
There is too much talking about behavior. Scolding is 
valueless usually, though once in a great while — when 
one is not intending to do much> besides — the punish- 
ment may be given with the tongue. One usually says too 
much ; a few vigorous words or a few of quiet contempt 
will go further than much wrath. Constant nagging would 
drive anyone to desperation ; telling once should be enough 
and generally will be if the teacher watches to see that all 
suggestions are obeyed. General calls for order are of 
little good. To wait a minute — a minute with eyes closed 
is interminably long — is better. It is a mistake to let 
one's discipline always show how the wheels go round. 
That school is best disciplined in which things go right, 
but no one seems to be thinking about discipline. 

There is usually someone who is making the trouble. 
The teacher should find the ringleaders and deal with 
them, nearly always quietly, as far as possible privately. 
To go and speak to a child is far better than to call to 
him, for many reasons — among which are the tendency of 
children to imitation and the fact that no one knows what 
the teacher says to the child. The idea should be culti- 
vated with each pupil that he is responsible for himself 
and need not concern himself with the others except to 

[292] 



DISCIPLINE 

set them a good example and to do nothing to disturb 
them. This last idea may be so well developed that little 
need for discipline will arise. Often the teacher, by call- 
ing attention to an offense, opens an avenue # of offense 
to the other pupils. This is equally true when the disci- 
pline largely takes the tone of forbidding to do things. 
Children are very imitative, very open to unconscious 
suggestion. It is better to tell what to do. 

Pupil government. Many teachers use successfully the 
idea of pupil government. This cannot be worked well 
with younger children. In using it with older ones, the 
teacher should remember that she is still at the head of 
the government. The responsibility of school control must 
always lie with the teacher, but she may be able to do it 
best by influencing the children to control themselves. It 
is a matter for careful handling. The Brownlee " System 
of Child Training" gives some good suggestions in this line. 

Motives for misbehavior should be found. The reasons 
for disorder should be sought. To control a school well, 
it is necessary for the teacher to discover the child's 
motives. Much apparent heedlessness and disorder arise 
from defects of sight and hearing or other physical 
troubles. One would always be more sympathetic if she 
knew these to be the cause. An uncomfortable child is 
hardly ever good. Again, much disorder is caused merely 
by ignorance of good manners. Teachers need to be par- 
ticular in corridor and yard to keep the pupils mannerly 
and free from the boisterous rudeness that comes without 
intent but that frequently spills over into the schoolroom 
and at any rate may make the child a nuisance in general 
company. A great deal of trouble arises from an overflow 

[293] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

of animal spirits. Sympathy and giving more work to do 
will meet this. Often the seating arrangements are bad, 
and breaking-up of the " ring " will straighten the trouble 
immediately. Much open disorder comes from the child's 
getting so absorbed in what he is bent upon that he 
becomes unconscious of the teacher's presence, a case of 
maximum attention which produces apparently open and 
reckless misbehavior. 

A pupil's wrongdoing sometimes comes from obsti- 
nacy. For one to be born obstinate is very unfortunate. 
Frequently the child is as unhappy as he is making others. 
He would stop balking if he were able. He should be 
managed by kindness, by overlooking many occasions for 
friction. If trouble comes, one should handle him as one 
would a balky horse — divert his attention, ignore him, give 
him a choice of things to do, gently push him along, 
sometimes treat him to a surprise. Collisions with an 
obstinate, sulky child should always be avoided. Usually 
the teacher's self-respect is not suffering as much as she 
thinks. If the collision has to come, as come sometimes 
it must, the teacher should be sure to come off victor. 

One should not be too prone to discover signs of 
offense. Often what seems like rudeness is bashfulness, 
self-consciousness, embarrassment. Yet it is well to remem- 
ber that looks and acts can express rudeness as well as 
can words, and many a child is allowed a veiled insolence 
for weeks, which must needs produce a bad effect upon 
him and the school. The teacher should demand polite- 
ness always and, on the other hand, should herself never 
fail of courtesy even in the most trying moments. Many 
little offenses are often worse than one large one, being 

[294] 



DISCIPLINE 

fully as bad in intention and much less easy to handle. 
An occasional child seems to plan to keep just inside the 
border line and never seems to do the one thing which 
would deserve marked attention. He should be jerked 
one way or the other with decision, should hear the list 
of his offenses in a bunch and either reform or receive 
his deserts. On the other hand, a teacher sometimes 
seems to be obsessed over the small misdemeanors of 
some particular child. It would be well to seat him be- 
hind her for a while, where she need not see him con- 
stantly, or else behind the school so she may disregard 
him without their knowing it. 

Mode of administering punishment. Punishment should 
be given in a way to preserve the pupil's self-respect, 
except in a few cases where a sense of humiliation is 
desirable. The teacher's self-respect should be maintained 
also, and many degrading punishments are to be avoided 
for their effect upon the teacher more than upon the 
child. Punishment in wrath must needs lower the teacher's 
feeling of respect for her own efficiency. Punishments 
should be given impersonally and sympathetically, regret- 
fully as to the need but without maudlin display of sen- 
timent. They should be administered in such a way as 
to prevent a recurrence of the offense, but to prevent it 
largely through raised ideals. 

Kinds of punishments. It is difficult to state what 
particular punishments should be employed. Those that 
might injure a child physically should never be practiced. 
Slapping of faces, boxing of ears, shutting in dark closets, 
oversevere shakings or whippings, all such things, a 
teacher should scorn to use. 

[295] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

Isolation is often very effective. It gives a child time 
to cool off, to get another point of view. Much trouble 
comes from nervousness, and the stimulus of an audi- 
ence being removed, the child is calmed and quieted. The 
school has a chance to recover its equilibrium, as does also 
the teacher. Isolation should not usually be accompanied 
by disgrace and should not be too long continued. 

Putting on honor will work with some pupils when all 
other means fail. Sending home is sometimes effective, 
but often produces an unpleasant state of feeling. If the 
parent can be made to understand the exact condition of 
affairs by means of a private note, it sometimes works 
well. Punishing like with like is a good way. Having the 
child do till tired what he did for fun, in the hands of some 
teachers, makes an almost ideal form of punishment. 

Whipping may be done when the teacher is assured 
that it is what the child needs. It should be used not 
because it is the easiest way but because it seems the 
best thing. It is so easy a mode of punishment that there 
is danger that it will too often seem the best, so one needs 
to be careful about employing it. If the teacher is assured 
that it is the best thing, it should be done with dignity 
and dispatch. It should nearly always be performed in 
private, as should most punishments. Once in a great 
while it is well for a school to see what goes on, as a 
lesson, but the effect of such things upon nervous chil- 
dren is bad, and it is not desirable to satisfy too closely 
the inquisitiveness of others. 

Right motives should be appealed to. Many too com- 
monly used punishments appeal only to the child's fear 
or to his sense of shame. Fear is the lowest of all 

[296] 



DISCIPLINE 

motives, and shame, unless carefully handled, may be 
little higher. It is far better that a pupil do right through 
ambition, through love, admiration, or respect for the 
teacher, or through a large desire to do right than through 
poorer motives. 

Rational obedience is by far the best. A child should 
know why he is expected to do certain things, why he is 
punished or praised. It is not always well to defer obedi- 
ence for explanations however. Explanations may accom- 
pany directions or may come afterwards or sometimes do 
not need to be given at all. Confidence in his teacher 
should be one of the greatest reasons for the obedience of 
a pupil. Rational obedience as far as possible, but obedi- 
ence anyway ; obedience through the highest motives pos- 
sible, but obedience through a low motive if necessary 
while a higher is being established ; obedience at any rate 
— this should be the teacher's creed, otherwise she may 
do serious injury to the child. Uplifting the tone of the 
school by talks and making the pupils feel that good order 
of the school is necessary for them, that it lies within 
their power and should be accomplished by them, that 
they are responsible for it, will go far to produce a proper 
attitude. It should be "we" and not "I" or "you" in 
connection with all school affairs. 

The aim of discipline. The aim of all punishment and 
discipline should be self-control, power for self-governing, 
development of character ; consequently the means employed 
must be as many as there are children, as changing as the 
needs of the school. 

The teacher should remember that because school gov- 
ernment aims at high things all superintendents and 

[297] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

committees want a well-governed school. She should re- 
member also that it is the spirit and not the body that 
governs, so she should increase her own self-confidence. 
She should expect to be obeyed. She should grow able to 
manage her school for herself. She may indeed call upon 
superintendent and principal when their help is necessary, 
she may better call upon them than have her school run 
wild, but she should feel ever unsatisfied till she herself 
is able to govern her school. 

Influence of teacher's character. The teacher's char- 
acter is the greatest moving power. What she is and the 
spirit she establishes will govern or misgovern her pupils. 
If she cannot control herself, she will not control the chil- 
dren. If public opinion condemns her, if — as has been 
suggested before — she is known and discussed by all the 
street-corner loafers, if she is not a quiet or an active 
power for good, she cannot make of her school what she 
otherwise would. 

Good discipline cannot end with the schoolroom door. 
The teacher's influence must go with the child and uplift 
and support him as will that of a worthy mother. The 
teacher's example and precept must work quietly and 
steadily through all a child's waking hours, whether spent 
in work or play, whether in school or home or elsewhere. 

REFERENCES 

Brownlee. Character Building in Schools. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. 

Brownlee. System of Child Training. Holden Company. 

Moral Training in the Public Schools (a group of essays). Ginn and 
Company. 

Scott. Social Education. Ginn and Company. 

[2 9 8] 



CHAPTER XXIX 
CONCLUSION 

Going away. When the time comes for the term to 
end and for the teacher to depart, she should not hurry in 
the doing so. It may be true that she is homesick, having 
been away from home perhaps for the first long absence. 
Her surroundings may not have been very congenial, she 
is undoubtedly tired, and she has probably done all she 
will be paid for ; yet in spite of all these facts, it is better 
to put things to rights without undue haste. It is not well 
for a teacher to close a term at three o'clock and take a 
four o'clock train, or, as sometimes happens, to supposedly 
close at four and take a three o'clock train. School should 
be ended with due decorum, with no signs of haste or 
neglect. Children are too easily taught the idea that the 
last of the term amounts to nothing. 

The register should be carefully made out, and such 
additional information as one would have been glad of 
herself should be left for the next teacher. The books 
and all other apparatus should be put in order, the boards 
cleaned, the flowers and other litter thrown away — in 
short, there should be left behind a place that has been 
swept and put in absolute order. As the teacher has tried 
to make the school a home, so let her leave it as she 
would leave her own home when going away for a visit. 
Let her extend the idea to her boarding place and leave 

[299] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 

her room in good condition. Then when everything is 
right she may go away with a light heart, a consciousness 
of duty done, a wholesome regret for whatsoever mistakes 
she may have made, and a new hope and determination 
for the future. 

Coming back. Let us hope that in many cases this 
future may return her to the same school, to be heartily 
greeted in the neighborhood, to rejoice over the orderly 
schoolroom, to be put in mind of forgotten things by her 
own register and other records, to enlarge the resources of 
the school equipment, and to carry on all those good plans 
which she was wise enough to start, regardless of whether 
the next teacher would continue them. Even to a rural 
school, perhaps above all to a rural school, it is well that 
there should be several of these returns. Teaching in the 
country is not without great advantages, since going to 
school is the business of the children and they are often 
without the great social distractions of a village or city. 
Nature presents her most attractive side. True, the salary 
is smaller, but the temptations to spend are fewer. The 
teacher may occupy a far more important place than in a 
larger community, and the opportunities for doing good 
are great. 

What the book has tried to teach. Lest it seem to the 
teacher that too much has been required of her in the 
foregoing chapters, it may be wise to take a backward 
glance and do a little summing-up. She has been asked to 
give less work in arithmetic and to make it appeal to the 
senses and to reasoning; to make the language work 
include abundant expression of thought with correction of 
its expression and a contribution to material for thought 

[300] 



CONCLUSION 

by means of poems, stories, and pictures ; to make the 
reading intelligent and about something worth while ; to 
make of geography and history thought-subjects rather 
than mere verbatim recitations ; to open the eyes of the 
children to the beauties of nature and their ears to har- 
mony of sound ; to employ drawing as a handmaid to 
other work; to train somewhat the pupil who is skillful 
with his hands and to start another who is not skillful 
upon the road to skill ; to make the child physically com- 
fortable, mentally efficient, and morally strong ; to con- 
sider the need of tools as great in the training of children 
as in the manufacture of shoes, bicycles, or horserakes ; to 
make the schoolroom as pleasant as the ordinary home ; 
to make her behavior that of the modest, virtuous woman 
who is above reproach. 

It all calls for work, thought, and self-denial. What 
business ever failed to need these ? She who expects to 
teach without them, who has chosen teaching as an easy 
occupation, may well be discouraged and retreat as early 
as possible. She who is willing to give of herself largely 
may find their accomplishment far easier than she thinks 
and her rewards greater than can be known by any other 
than herself. 



[30i] 



INDEX 



(References given at the end of the chapters are not repeated in the index, 
neither are the lists of poems and stories given in Chapters XV and XVI.) 



Accidents, 79-81 

Addition and subtraction by end- 
ings, 99, 100 

Adenoids, 76, 77 

Animal study, 206-211 

Apparatus (Chapter IV) : need of 
tools, 25; economy of, 25, 26; 
care of books, 26, 27 ; distribu- 
tion, 27, 28 ; tools should be 
ready, 28 ; acquisition of books, 
29; books the most valuable 
tool, 30; homemade books, 30; 
pictures the next tool, 31-33; 
the school collection, 33 ; use 
of pictures, 33, 34 ; school cabi- 
net, 34, 35; loans, 35, 36; effect 
of use in class, 36; the black- 
board, 36, 37 ; maps and charts, 
37 ; drill cards, 37, 38 ; other 
apparatus, 38-42 ; educational 
papers, 42 ; books for teachers' 
use or for children's library, 43 ; 
the picture as, 152 

Aquarium, 210 

Arithmetic (Chapter IX) : impor- 
tance, 95, 96; character of first 
grade, 96, 97 ; later primary 
number work, 97 ; playing store, 
101 ; work above fifth year, 101- 
103 ; use of class time, 103 ; need 
of independent work, 103; need 
of good judgment on part of 
teacher, 104 ; a few good drills, 
104-107 ; a few ways to help to 
easier work, 107-110 

Assignment of lessons, 268 

Attendance, 66; use of seating 
plan for, 39, 45, 46 



Attention, a characteristic of a 
good recitation, 271, 272; rea- 
sons for loss of, 272, 273 

Austin, Mary, study of poem of, 
159-162 

Bancroft, " School Freehand Gym- 
nastics," 84 ; " Games for Play- 
ground, Home, School, and 
Gymnasium," 279 

Basketry, 250, 251 

Bird study, 210, 211 

Blackboard, 17 ; decoration of, 21, 
22 ; cleaning of, 23, 24 ; as a tool, 
36, 37 ; Whitney, " Blackboard 
Sketching," 219 

Bookcase, 16, 17 

Books, 7-9 ; care of, 26, 27 ; acqui- 
sition of, 29, 194, 195 ; the most 
valuable tool, 30; homemade, 
30 ; covers for, 40 ; for teachers' 
use or for children's library, 43 

Boston guard penholder, 225 

Brass, work in, 253 

Breathing exercises, 85 

Brushes, 40 

Bryant, " How to Tell Stories to 
Children," 167; "Stories to Tell 
to Children," 167 

Building and Grounds, School 
(Chapter III) : cleanliness, 15; 
orderliness, 22-24; outbuildings, 
24 ; schoolyard, 24 

Cabinet, 16, 17, 33-35 
Cane, 251 

Cardboard construction, papers 
for, 38, 245,^246 



[303] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 



" Cardboard Construction " (Rich), 

245 
Cards, for drill, 37, 38; report, 65; 

for reading, 115 
Chairs and desks, 70 
Chart, reading, 114, 115 
Children's Hour (Tappan), 167 
Clay, 39 

Cleanliness, 15, 16 
Cold-air schools, 68 
Combinations, to twenty, 98, 99 ; 

of classes for spelling, 140 
Community, teacher's position in, 

4. 5 
Conclusion (Chapter XXIX) 
Contagious diseases, 81, 82 
Correction, in reading, 124, 125; 

of pupils' English, 144, 145 
Covers, for books, 40 
Crayons, 38, 39, 218, 223 
Current Events, 90 
Curtain, 22 

Decimal square, 106 

Decoration, 17-21 

Desk Work (Chapter XXIII): 
material for, 12; need of, 234, 
235 ; teacher should see purpose 
of, 235; variety necessary, 235, 
236 ; need of explanation, 236 ; 
how regarded by child, 236, 237 ; 
decision as to kind, 237 ; should 
be attractive and hygienic, 237, 
238 ; use with older grades, 238 ; 
sources of material, 238 ; care 
of material, 239 ; distribution of, 
239 ; list of kinds, 240-242 

Desks, 70 

Development paper, 38 

Development work in a recitation, 
266, 267 

Dictionary Study (Chapter XI) : 
need of power, 128; prepara- 
tion for formal study, 1 28 ; class 
practice in looking up words, 
128,129; determining pronunci- 
ation, 1 29 ; knowledge of parts of 
speech, 129, 130 ; testing knowl- 
edge of meaning, 130; need of 
individual dictionaries, 131 



Discipline (Chapter XXVIII) : 
reasons for need of, 282 ; reasons 
why difficult, 283, 284; what con- 
stitutes good order, 284 ; noise 
a condition of disorder, 284, 
285 ; movement favorable to 
disorder, 285, 286 ; industry, 
obedience, politeness, signs of a 
well-ordered school, 286 ; under- 
standing by teacher of what 
constitutes disorder necessary 
for good, 286, 287 ; proper or- 
ganization a help, 287, 288 ; per- 
sonal element a large factor, 
288, 289 ; tact an essential ele- 
ment, 289, 290 ; popularity, 290, 
291 ; love and respect, 291 ; 
not knowing what to do, 291 ; 
should be quiet, 292, 293 ; pupil 
government, 293 ; motives for 
misbehavior should be found, 
293-295; mode of administer- 
ing punishment, 295 ; kinds of 
punishments, 295, 296; right 
motives should be appealed to, 
296, 297 ; the aim of, 297, 298 ; 
influence of teacher's character, 
298 
Discussion, in reading, 122, 123; 
in history, 195 ; an aid in devel- 
opment, 266, 267 
Disorder, 284-287, 293, 294 
Distribution, of apparatus, 27, 28, 

239; of questions, 270, 271 
Dolls' house, 253, 254 
Dramatizing, 169, 170, 192 
Drawing (Chapter XX) :asameans 
of expression, 147 ; use of pic- 
ture in, 152 ; in connection with 
nature study, 212; neglect of 
subject, 215; interest, the first 
step, 215, 216; sources of sub- 
jects, 216, 217 ; material, 217- 
219; the lesson, 219, 220; should 
train to artistic power, 220, 221 
Drill cards, 37, 115 
Drills, in arithmetic, 104-107 ; for 
sight words, 115, 116; in lan- 
guage, 145-147 ; by desk work, 
240-242 



[304] 



INDEX 



Drinking cup, 77, 78 

Easy Dye, 40 

Economy, of material, 25, 26; of 
time, 27, 28, 50-52, 57, 59 

" Education by Plays and Games " 
(Johnson), 279 

Educational papers, 42 

" Elementary Sloyd and Whit- 
tling" (Larsson), 252 

" Elements of the Theory and 
Practice of Cookery " (Williams 
and Fisher), 255 

Emergency, helps for, 13 

English, ways of improving, 142; 
the teacher's, 142, 143; correc- 
tion of pupils', 144, 145 

Entertainments, 260—263 

Equipment, Teacher's (Chapter 
II) : why needed, 7 ; box for, 

7-13 
Ethical training, 90-94 
Executive ability, use and value 

of, 57 
Experiment, 212 
Eyesight, 71-74 

First day, 44-48 
Flies, 69 
Flowers, 20, 24 
Fumigation, 81, 82 
Furniture, 16, 17 

Games, language, 146, 147 ; kinds 
of, 278-280 ; " Games for Play- 
ground, Home, School, and 
Gymnasium" (Bancroft), 279 

Geography (Chapter XVII) : im- 
portance of subject, 178, 179; 
preliminary work, 179; early 
work, oral, 179, 180; map mak- 
ing and reading, 180; study of 
surface features, 180, 181 ; order 
of procedure, 181 ; climatic con- 
ditions, 181, 182 ; relation to 
man, 1 82-1 84 ; with a book, 185; 
location of places, 185, 186; 
aids, 186, 187 ; use of different 
books, 187 ; emphasis of causal 
idea, 187 ; reviews with older 



classes, 187-189; teacher and 
books as sources of aid, 189 ; 
correlation with history, 195, 
196 

Globe, 39 

Grammar, work leading to techni- 
cal, 148, 149; technical, 149, 150 

Grounds, School Building and. See 
Building and Grounds, School 

" Gymnastic Stories and Plays " 
(Stoneroad), 84 

Habits, smoking and other bad, 

83 

Handwork, 244-257 

Hapgood, " School Needlework," 
246 

Health, 67-86 

Hearing, 74-76 

Hectograph, 41, 42 

History (Chapter XVIII) : intro- 
ductory, 191 ; story-telling a 
foundation for, 191 ; reading, 
191, 192 ; regular study, 192, 
193; what to emphasize, 193; 
local, 193, 194; verbatim recita- 
tion, 194; topical study from 
more than one book, 194 ; how 
to get books, 194, 195 ; discus- 
sion in class, 195 ; maps and 
correlation with geography, 195, 
196; pictures, poems, and sto- 
ries, 196, 197 ; reviews, 197 ; 
training gained through, 197 ; 
preparation of teacher, 197, 198 

"Home and School Sewing" (Pat- 
ton), 246 

Home work, 62 

" How to Make Baskets " (White), 
250 

" How to Tell Stories to Children " 
(Bryant), 167 

Hygiene, instruction in, 82, 83 ; 
work should be hygienic, 237, 
238 

Hymns, 89 

" Illustrated Phonics " (Ives), 85 
Illustration, articles for, n, 12; 
study of poem for, 160-162 



[305] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 



Industrial Work (Chapter XXIV) : 
material for, 12, 13 ; justification 
of, 244, 245; paper and card- 
board work, 245, 246 ; sewing, 
246-248 ; weaving, 248, 249 ; 
raffia, 249 ; knotting, 249, 250 ; 
basketry, 250, 251 ; caning, 251, 
252; whittling, 252; stenciling, 
252 ; modeling, 253 ; leather, 
iron, brass, and other kinds of 
work, 253; the dolls' house, 253, 
254; in connection with special 
subjects, 254, 255; cooking and 
household economics, 255; gar- 
dening, 255 ; time of doing, 255, 
256; conduct of class, 256; ma- 
terial, 256; making a start, 257 

Interest, arousing, 58 

Interruptions during reading, 124 

Iron, work in, 253 

Itch, 78, 79 

Ives, " Illustrated Phonics," 85 

Jackman, " Nature Study for Com- 
mon Schools," 212 

Jellitac, 40 

Johnson, " Education by Plays and 
Games," 279 

Keeping in at recess, 62 

Lamp, 39 

Language (Chapter XIII) : early 
work, oral and incidental, 142; 
ways of improving English, 142 ; 
the teacher's English, 142, 143; 
presentation of good models, 
143; free expression by pupils, 
143, 144; correction of pupils' 
English, 144, 145; arousing in- 
terest and watchfulness, 145 ; 
exercises to secure correctness, 
145, 146; various forms of ex- 
pression, 147; written work with 
lower grades, 147 ; work with 
older children, 147, 148; work 
leading to technical grammar, 

148, 149; technical grammar, 

149, 150; use of pictures in, 
I 5 2 ' 153 



Larsson, " Elementary Sloyd and 

Whittling," 252 
Leather, 41 ; work in, 253 
Leaving places, 61 
Lentils, 97, 99 
Library, 29, 43 
Lice, 78, 79 
Loans, 35, 36 
Local history, 193, 194 
Looms, Bartlett, 40, 249 ; A B C, 

40 

Maps and charts, 37 ; making and 
reading in geography, 180 ; in 
history, 195 

Material, mending, 40; for read- 
ing, 126, 127 ; for drawing, 217— 
219; care and distribution of 
desk work, 239 ; for industrial 
work, 256; preparation of, for 
entertainments, 261, 262 

Mats for weaving, 39, 248, 249 

Mending material, 40 

Mineral study, 205, 206 

Miscellaneous articles for teacher's 
box, 13 

Modeling, 253 ; clay for, 39; plas- 
ticine for, 39 

" More Baskets and How to Make 
Them" (White), 250 

Morning Exercises (Chapter 
VIII): Scripture, 88, 89; hymns, 
89; devotional poems, 89; other 
features, 89, 90 ; current events, 
90; ethical training, 90; indirect 
instruction, 91 ; careful super- 
vision, 91 ; direct instruction, 
91-94 

Mounting, of pictures, 31 ; board 
for, 38 

Multiplication tables, 99 

Music (Chapter XXII) : ways and 
means, 228 ; need of stimulus, 
229 ; character of work, 229, 
230; perfection not to be ex- 
pected too early, 230 ; all should 
sing, 230, 231 ; treatment in 
rural schools, 231 ; tactics of 
recitation, 231 ; training in ap- 
preciation, 232, 233 



[306] 



INDEX 



Nature Study (Chapter XIX) : in- 
troductory, 199; what to include, 
199, 200; plant life, 200; fall 
work with plants, 200-202 ; seed 
dissemination, 202; plant study 
in winter, 203; plant study in 
spring, 203-205 ; mineral study, 
205,206; animal study, 206; mode 
of working, 206, 207 ; smaller 
forms of animal life, 207, 208 ; 
continued schoolroom observa- 
tion, 208, 209 ; the aquarium, 
210; "Nature Study" (Hodge), 
210; bird study, 210, 211 ; nat- 
ural phenomena, 211 ; time and 
place of lessons, 211, 212; ex- 
periments, 212 ; aids, 212; gen- 
eral, 212; "Nature Study for 
Common Schools" (Jackman), 
212 

Noon rest time, 279, 280 

Nosebleed, 80 

Oak tag, 38 

Obedience, 296, 297 

Object and action work in teach- 
ing reading, 112, 113 

" Object Lessons " (Ricks), 181 

Opening exercises, for first day, 
46, 47 ; general, 88-90 

Orderliness, 22-24 

Organizing for permanent im- 
provement, 16 

"Our World Reader," 179 

Outbuildings, 24 

Overwork, 83, 84 

Paints, 39 

Paper and cardboard work, 245, 
246 

Papers, sources of, 38 ; educa- 
tional, 42 

Parent-teacher associations, 66 

Paste, 40 

Patches, gummed cloth, 40 

Patterns, Jenny Wren, 247 

Pegs, 39 

Pencils, 39 ; Dixon's Eterno, 42 ; 
individual, 78; in drawing, 217, 
218 ; for writing, 223 



Penholders, 39, 225 

Pens, rubber marking, 40 ; auto- 
matic shading, 40 

Phonetic drills, 118, 119 

Phonic, or phonetic, method in 
reading, 11 6-1 19 

Physical Comfort of the Child 
(Chapter VII) : teacher respon- 
sible, 67 ; room should be com- 
fortable, 67 ; flies, 69 ; desks and 
chairs, 70, 71 ; physical defects, 
71; tests of eyesight, 71-74; 
hearing, 74-76; adenoids, 76, 
77 ; drinking cup, 77, 78 ; dry 
sweeping, 78 ; individual pen- 
cils, 78 ; lice and itch, 78, 79 ; 
small ailments, 79-81 ; conta- 
gious diseases, 81,82; instruction 
in hygiene, 82, 83 ; smoking 
and other bad habits, 83 ; worry 
and overwork, 83 84 ; physical 
exercises, 84, 85 ; breathing ex- 
ercises, 85; sense training an 
indirect aid, 85, 86 

Physical exercises, 84, 85 

Picture (Chapter XIV) : introduc- 
tion, 152; treatment, 152, 153; 
sources, 153, 154; use in con- 
nection with written work, 154; 
use in history, 196; use in nature 
study, 212 

Picture wire, 40 

Pictures, 10, 11 ; decoration by, 
17-19; Prang, 18; Rhine prints, 
18; Perry, 18, 41, 153; mounts 
for, 31 ; as a tool, 31-33 ; school 
collection, 33; use of, 33, 34; 
Brown, 41, 153 

Pitchpipe, 39 

Placards, 39 

Plant life, 200 ; fall work with, 200- 
202 ; study of, in winter, 203 ; 
study of, in spring, 203-205 

Plants, 20 

Plasticine, 39 

Play (Chapter XXVII) : teacher 
should superintend, 277 ; teacher 
should not control, 277, 278; 
kinds of games, 278, 279; indoor 
recess, 279; children should take 



[307] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 



part in, 279 ; noon rest time, 
279, 280 ; in connection with 
regular school work, 280, 281 

Playing store, 101 

Poem (Chapter XV) : devotional, 
89; value of study, 155; selec- 
tion and sources, 155-157; prep- 
aration for teaching, 157 ; teach- 
ing, 157, 158; reproduction, 159; 
manner of reciting, 1 59 ; illus- 
tration by use of " The Rocky 
Mountain Sheep," 159-162 ; list 
of good poems, 162-165; in his- 
tory, 196 

Position, during reading, 124; in 
writing, 225, 226 

Post cards, 32, 33 

Prang pictures, 18 

Prang Textbooks of Art Instruc- 
tion, 220 

Preparation, for teaching, 1 ; of 
teacher for recitation, 51, 52; 
of material, 59 ; of teacher for 
poem, 1 57 ; of teacher for his- 
tory, 197, 198 

Prizes, 62 

Program, for first day, 47, 48 ; 
regular, 49 ; place of subjects 
in, 49, 50 ; arrangements for 
making most of time, 50, 51 ; 
length of recitation periods, 

51, 52; written, 52; changing, 

52, 53 ; sample, 53-56 

Promotions, 63-65 

Pronunciation, work for, in read- 
ing, 122; determining pronun- 
ciation of words, 129 

Punishment, 295, 296 
Pupil government, 293 

Questioning, 268-270 
Questions, needed for recitation, 
265, 266 

Raffia, 40, 249 

Railway folders, 32 

Rank, 63 

Reading (Chapter X) : purpose, 
112; primary, 112-121 ; word 
method, 112; object and action 



work, 112, 113; use of rhymes, 
113, 114; the reading chart, 114, 
115; drill cards, 115; other 
drills for sight work, 115, 116; 
the phonic, or phonetic, method, 
116, 117 ; learning sounds, 117 ; 
recognition of word through 
hearing sounds, 117, 118; sound- 
ing words, 118; need of con- 
tinued drill, 118; phonetic drills, 
118, 119; sounds should continue 
to be basis of getting words, 
119; if no method is in use, 1 19, 
120; supplementary, 120, 121; 
advanced, 1 21-127; difficulties 
and general method of treating, 
121, 122; work for pronuncia- 
tion, 122 ; work for understand- 
ing, 122, 123; other aids, 123; 
position and voice, 124; inter- 
ruptions and corrections, 124, 
125; re-reading, 125, 126; best 
material, 126, 127; history, 191, 
192 

Recess, 278, 279 

Recitation (Chapter XXVI) : in 
arithmetic, 103 ; in reading, 122- 
126; verbatim, in history, 194; 
tactics of music, 23 1 ; conduct 
of class in industrial work, 256; 
preparation, 264 ; ways of con- 
ducting, 264, 265 ; questions and 
topics needed, 265, 266; oral 
teaching, or development, 266, 
267 ; assignment, 268 ; question- 
ing, 268-270 ; distribution of 
questions, 270, 271 ; attention a 
characteristic of good, 271, 272 ; 
variety a help, 272 ; reasons for 
loss of attention in, 272, 273 ; re- 
sponsibility of class, 273 ; atti- 
tude of class, 274; characteristics 
of a teacher helping, 274, 275 ; 
summary, 275, 276 

Reeds, 40, 250, 251 

Report cards, 65 

Reproduction, of poem, 1 59 ; of 
story, 168, 169 

Review, in geography, 187 ; in 
history, 197 



[308] 



INDEX 



Ricks, " Object Lessons," 181 

" Rocky Mountain Sheep " (Mary 

Austin), the study of, 160-162 
Room should be comfortable, 67- 

70 
Rulers, 39 

Sand tray, 39 

School, cold-air, 68 

School Arts Magazine, 220 

" School Freehand Gymnastics " 
(Bancroft), 84 

" School Needlework " (Hap- 
good), 246 

School officers, teacher's attitude 
toward, 5, 6 

Scrapbook, 40 

Scripture reading, 88, 89 

Seating plan, 39, 45, 46, 66 

Seed dissemination, 202 

Sense training, 85, 86 

Senses, defects of, 71-76; train- 
ing, 85, 86 

Shrine of beauty, 21 

Sickness, 80-82 

Sign marker, 40 

Smoking, 83 

Solids, 39 

Sounds, learning for reading, 117; 
recognition of word through 
hearing, 117, 118; sounding 
words, 118; need of drill in, 1 18 

Sources of apparatus, 38-43. See 
also lists at ends of chapters 

Speaking pieces, 259 

Special Exercises (Chapter XXV) 
Friday afternoon, 259; speaking 
pieces, 259; visitation days, 260 
entertainments, 260, 261 ; prep 
aration of material, 261, 262 
dressing up, 262 ; admission 
entertainments, 262, 263 ; value 
of entertainments, 263 

Spelling (Chapter XII) : time of 
beginning, 132 ; manner of be- 
ginning, 132, 133; series, 133- 
135 ; learning value of letters, 
135 ; of miscellaneous words, 
135, 136; oral and written neces- 
sary,i36, 137; oral, 137; written, 



137 ; study of, 138, 139; in con- 
nection with other lessons, 139; 
encouraging interest in, 139, 
140 ; combination of classes, 
140; the poor speller, 141 

Splinters, 79, 80 

Starting in (Chapter V) : 44-56 

Stenciling, 252 

Sticks, 39 

" Stories to Tell to Children " 
(Bryant), 167 

Story (Chapter XVI) : for Ian 
guage drills, 146; importance 
166; kinds, 166; sources, i66 ; 
167 ; characteristics of a good 
167; manner of treating, 167 
168; oral reproduction, 168, 169 
written reproduction, 169 ; other 
forms of reproduction, 169: 
dramatizing, 169, 170; read- 
ing, 170, 171 ; list of, 171-176 
foundation for history, 191 ; use 
in history, 196, 197 

Studio papers, 38 

Study, independent, 60 ; of spell- 
ing, 138, 139; value of poem, 
1 55; following development, 267 

Supervision, 91 

Supplementary reading, 120, 121 

Sweeping, 78 

Table, homemade, 17 

Tables, multiplication, 99 

Tappan, The Children's Hour, 167 

Teacher (Chapter I) : prepara- 
tion for work, 1 ; school train- 
ing not sufficient, 1,2; personal 
appearance, 2-4; position in 
community, 4, 5; attitude toward 
school officers, 5, 6 ; makes the 
school, 6; equipment (see Equip- 
ment, Teacher's); need of watch- 
fulness by, 46; responsible for 
health, 67 ; English of, 142, 143 ; 
an example in writing, 227 ; char- 
acteristics of, helping to a good 
recitation, 274, 275; duties re- 
garding play, 277, 278 ; influence 
of character in discipline, 298 

Teeth, 77 



[309] 



EVERYDAY PEDAGOGY 



Testing knowledge of meaning, 

130 
Tests, 63 
Ticket pins, 40 
Tools, need of, 25; should be 

ready, 28 
Topics, study of history by, 194 ; 

needed in a recitation, 265, 266 
Towels, 79 
Toy money, 39 
Training, school not sufficient, 1, 2 

Variety, necessary for interest in 
desk work, 235, 236; a help in 
recitation, 272 

Ventilation, 68, 69 

Visitation days, 260 

Voice in reading, 124 

Waste, of material, 25, 26; of 

time, 27, 28, 50-52 
Waste paper, 22 
Weaving, mats for, 39, 248, 249 



White, "How to Make Baskets," 
250 ; " More Baskets and How 
to Make Them," 250 

Word method of teaching read- 
ing, 1 1 2-1 1 6 

Work, preparation of teacher for, 
5 r > 5 2 > 57> 58; important and 
necessary, 58, 59 ; study work 
independent, 60 ; change of, 
61 ; means employed for getting 
done, 61, 62 ; home, 62 

Worry, 83, 84 

Wounds, 80 

Writing (Chapter XXI) : not to 
be begun too early, 222, 223 ; 
character of, 223-225; position, 
225, 226; precept, example, and 
practice needed, 226, 227 

Written lessons, 63 ; in spelling, 
137 ; in language work, 147, 148; 
use of picture with, 1 54 

Yard, 24 



[3IO] 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS # 



019 809 873 5 



